Ephesians 5:3

(3) But fornication, and all uncleanness, or Christian light covetousness.—“Fornication” is closely joined (as in 2Co_12:21; Gal_5:19; Col_3:5) with “uncleanness,” of which general sin it is a flagrant species. It is distinguished (as also in Col_3:5) from “covetousness,” or greediness. “Uncleanness” is a sin against our own body and soul (see 1Co_6:18); “covetousness” (literally, the insatiable desire for more) is a sin against our neighbour. At the same time, the constant connection of the two words suggests the truth which is conveyed by the union of the two kinds of “coveting” in the Tenth Commandment, viz., that the temper of selfish and unbridled concupiscence has a two-fold direction—to the covetousness of lust, and to the covetousness of avarice—the one perhaps especially a vice of youth, and the other of old age.

(3b) Eph_5:3-14 warn, with even greater fulness and emphasis, against the sins of impurity and lust, as incompatible with membership of the kingdom of heaven, as works of darkness, impossible to those who are children of light.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_5:3

But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.

The sin of impurity

Consider the hatefulness of this sin.

I. By its inner nature.

1. This sin, however loathsome in the sight of God and of human nature transformed by His grace, is nevertheless most seductive to the lower fallen nature of man. As a check to it, God has implanted in us the noble sense of shame, so that the Christian, who has not returned like a dog to his vomit, abhors whatever is unchaste.

(1) Thoughts. How deeply ashamed you would be if your fellow men could perceive your impure thoughts and desires, though they be involuntary! Happy is he who, when merely thoughts cross his mind, listens to the warning voice of nature.

(2) Words. St. Stanislaus fainted at hearing, by chance, an expression of ambiguous meaning. Even ordinary virtue will blush in confusion at the gibes of immodesty; only habitual shamelessness will laugh at them.

(3) Deeds. Is not the whole nature set in an uproar? Who is so base as to commit impure actions before witnesses? Yet, when you are alone, the All-knowing God, and the holy angels, witness your deeds.

2. It is repugnant to the higher nature of man. Man--the image and likeness of the Triune God--by his impurity reviles

(1) God the Father, who created our limbs in honour;

(2) God the Son, whose members we are;

(3) God the Holy Ghost, of whom our body is the temple.

3. It is an abomination before God.

II. Its consequences.

1. Ruin of earthly happiness. Lewdness works destruction

(1) on the body;

(2) on temporal welfare.

2. Ruin of the soul.

(1) The reasoning faculty is weakened.

(2) The will becomes perverted.

(3) Conversion becomes almost impossible.

3. Eternal damnation.

(1) Reflect on the loss of everlasting joys, where nothing defiled can enter.

(2) Reflect on the torments of hell. Sodom and Gomorrah are set for a warning example. The unchaste are threatened with their portion in the lake burning with fire and brimstone. (Le Jeune.)

Forbidden sins

I. To fix the sense. First: The manner and degree of forbidding--Let it not be once named among you. You will think this over-strict; and how can it be reproved if it be not named? But let us consider the sense.

1. The apostle speaketh thus to express the height of detestation; for things that we utterly detest we will not name. Never let these foul practices get the least admission among you.

2. Some sins are more catching than others; the very mention of them may revive and stir the motions of them in an unmortified heart. And uncleanness and fornication are of this nature, because they tend immediately to please the flesh; other sins more remotely.

3. There is a naming of these things which is very sinful, and that two ways.

(1) When it is done in such a brood and coarse way, or nasty language, as doth invite rather than rebuke sin.

(2) When we seek to palliate foul deeds with handsome and plausible names, and so speak of these things with allowance and extenuation, and not with extreme detestation.

Secondly, the reason--As it becometh saints; that is, Christians or believers; all of them are saints, or should be saints.

1. Some are so only by external dedication and profession; as by baptism they are set apart for God as a clean and holy people.

2. Others are saints by internal regeneration, as sanctified and renewed by the Holy Ghost (Tit_3:5). Now these things are contrary to the disposition and spirit of saints, or to the holy, new, and Divine nature which is put into them.

II. What purity and cleanness of heart belongeth to Christians. In the Scripture they are everywhere described by it, With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure (Psa_18:18); Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you (Joh_15:3); Surely God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart (Psa_73:1); Separate yourselves from the unclean thing, and I will receive you (2Co_6:17); and in other places. Let us see what obligations lie upon us to be clean and pure.

1. We are consecrated to the service of a holy God.

2. We profess the most holy faith; this obligeth us also, whether we took to the laws of God, which are the rule of our duty, or the promises of God, which are the charter of our hopes.

3. Because of our present communion with God and service of God.

III. The special impurity that is in such sins, so that holiness must be forsaken, or else these vices so opposite to holiness. What special impurity is there in those sins?

1. They defile the body, and are contrary to the dignity of the body, as it is a member of Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost, or an instrument to be used for the glory of God (1Co_6:18).

2. Uncleanness corrupts and defileth the mind; for it turneth it from the true pleasure to the false, and that procured on the basest terms of downright sin against God.

What need we have to work in Christians a greater abhorrence of fornication and uncleanness, because it is a common sin and a grievous sin.

1. It is a common sin; and then it is time to cry aloud and spare not, when persons, both single and married, make so little conscience of this duty.

2. It is a grievous sin. We will endeavour to touch them in the tenderest part that is left, viz., fear. Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge (Heb_13:4). Men think it a small matter to satisfy nature, but God will find them out both here and hereafter. There fell in one day twenty-three thousand for this sin (1Co_10:8). It unfitteth for every holy duty. Holy and sacred things never can be seriously received by sensual minds and hearts. Caution to young men that are not yet taken in the snare. Keep yourselves at a great distance from and great abhorrence of this sin. Therefore, first, avoid occasions (Pro_5:8). Advice to all Christians. Upon all occasions, think what will become saints. Let the consciousness of your dedication to God be ever upon your heart. (T. Manton, D. D.)

Sinful lusts must be abhorred

When Venice was in the hands of the Austrians, those alien tyrants swarmed in every quarter; but the Venetians hated them to the last degree, and showed their enmity upon all occasions. When the Austrian officers sat down at any of the tables in the square of St. Mark, where the Venetians delight on summer evenings to eat their ices and drink their coffee, the company would immediately rise and retire, showing by their withdrawal that they abhorred their oppressors. After this fashion will every true Christian treat his inbred sins; he will not be happy under their power, nor tolerate their dominion, nor show them favour. If he cannot expel them, he will not indulge them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Evil of covetousness

Beware of growing covetousness; for, of all sins, this is one of the most insidious. It is like the silting up of a river. As the stream comes down from the land, it brings with it sand and earth, and deposits all these at its mouth; so that by degrees, unless the conservators watch it carefully, it will block itself up, and leave no channel for ships of great burden. By daily deposit, it imperceptibly creates a bar which is dangerous to navigation. Many a man when he begins to accumulate wealth, commences at the same moment to ruin his soul; and the more he acquires, the more closely he blocks up his liberality, which is, so to speak, the very mouth of spiritual life. Instead of doing more for God he does less; the more he saves, the more he wants; and the more he wants of this world, the less he cares for the world to come. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Covetousness decried and yet practised

About the time that the Apostle Paul was denouncing the sin (of covetousness) in his Epistle to Timothy, Seneca was decrying the same evil, and composed his Ethics; but, as if to show the impotence of his own precepts, he was accused of having amassed the most ample riches--a circumstance which, though not the ostensible, was no doubt the real, cause of his finally falling a victim to the jealousy of Nero. (Harris.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph 5:3-4. But fornication, &c. — But any impure love, and any vice flowing therefrom, or connected therewith; let it not be once named — Or heard of; among you — Except with detestation. Keep at the utmost distance from it; as becometh saints — Who are conscious of the sanctity of your name and profession, and dread the thoughts of debasing it; for certainly it is reasonable and proper that they who are separated from the world, and dedicated to God, should shun all such mention of these things, as may any way encourage and countenance the practice of them. Neither filthiness — Wanton, lewd, lascivious speeches; nor foolish talking — Tittle-tattle, talking of the weather, fashions, meat, and drink, and such vain discourse as betrays folly and indiscretion, and has no tendency to edify; nor jesting — Ευτραπελια, wittiness, facetiousness, or such artfully turned discourse as is only calculated to produce mirth and laughter. Such turns of wit were esteemed by the heathen a sort of virtue: but how frequently every thing of this kind quenches the Spirit, those who are of a tender conscience know. Which things are not convenient — Or proper for a Christian, as neither increasing his faith nor holiness, and are therefore utterly unsuitable to his profession. But rather giving of thanks — Rather abound in the language of thanksgiving and devotion, to which you are under so many and such strong obligations, and which will yield a pleasure much more sublime and satisfactory than any animal indulgences or delights. Observe, reader, the deliverances which God hath wrought out for us, and the benefits which he hath conferred on us in the course of his providence, the great blessings of redemption and salvation from sin and misery procured for us, and the gift of eternal life consequent thereon, with whatever is necessary to prepare us for these blessings, are powerful considerations why we should be frequent and fervent in praise and thanksgiving.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Second Contrast—Sins of the Flesh, Eph_5:3-21.

a. Against Gentile uncleanness, remembering God’s judgment, beware, Eph_5:3-7.

3. But—Marking the transition to a new volume of iniquity in the anti-Church of Gentilism, to be avoided by the Church of Christianity.

Fornication—All sexual sin.

Uncleanness—All disgraceful vice or flagitiousness; vice that infringes most against the sense of decency, decorum, or honour. Hence it covers the territory between sexual vice and dishonest greed of gain, and is on its opposite sides allied to each.

Covetousness—Note on Eph_4:19. In both cases it should be rendered as here.

Once named—Let these vices be so far from you that the very allusion to them shall cease. It is not so much the verbal naming that is forbidden, as the behaviour and thoughts that induce their naming. The effort should be to render such vices unthought of, strange, and surprising.

Becometh saints—As befits a holy community.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 3-21. THE WALK SUITABLE TO THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT.

But. Another of the remarkable contrasts of this Epistle; the fumes of lust are doubly odious in contact with the sweet savor of Christ"s offering. Fornication and all impurity, or covetousness. The combination of covetousness with sins of the flesh, occurring several times in the apostle"s writings (1Co_5:11; Eph_5:3; Col_3:5) is rather unexpected. Pleonexia, covetousness, means the desire of having more, which is peculiarly true of sensual sins; but it is not coupled with them by a kai, but disjoined by a h indicating something of another class. In the mind of the apostle, sensuality was inseparable from greed, unnatural craving for more, dissatisfaction with what was enough; hence the neighborhood of the two vices. Let it not be even named among you, as becometh saints. The practice of such sins was out of the question; but even speaking of them, as matters of ordinary conversation, was unsuitable for saints; the very conversation of Christians must be pure. The exhortation bears on Christians in their social relations; had the apostle been treating of the duty of the individual, he would have urged that such sins should never be admitted even to the thoughts or the imagination.

Vers. 3-5.

Warnings against impurity of all kinds.

The sins here described were common among the heathen, and received no adequate check from their moral guides. Indeed, the old pagan world regarded them as things indifferent. They are, for the most part, sins against ourselves, as the sins condemned in the previous verses are sins against our neighbors. They are to be condemned on many grounds.

I THEY ARE EXPRESS VIOLATIONS OF THE DIVINE LAW. (Exo_20:14)

II THEY ARE DISHONOURING TO GOD AND HIS HOLINESS. The corruption that is in the world through lust is inconsistent with the Divine nature. (2Pe_1:4)

III THEY THWART THE DESIGN OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, which is "to purify a people to himself"; (Tit_2:14) "to cleanse us from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit". (2Co_7:1) Jesus suffered in the flesh that we should die to the flesh. (1Pe_4:1)

IV THEY GRIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT, whose office is to sanctify us. (Eph_4:29, Eph_4:30) "That pure and holy dove will not dwell in a cage of unclean and filthy birds.

V THEY DISHONOUR THE BODY, which is the temple of the Holy. (1Co_6:18) They waste it as well as dishonor it. (Pro_5:11)

VI THEY WAR AGAINST THE SOUL in every sense of the term against its life, its aspirations, its happiness. (1Pe_2:11) They even darken the judgment and the understanding. (Hos_4:11) No sort of sin so hardens the heart.

VII THEY PROVOKE GOD"S AUGER. (Col_3:5, Col_3:6; Jer_5:7; Eph_5:6) "For the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience." They subject transgressors to God"s judgment, for "whoremongers and adulterers God wilt judge. (Heb_13:4) And they keep them out of heaven. (1Co_6:9; ver. 5) These sins of impurity are not even to be named among saints, who are to be pure in thought, pure in heart, pure in speech, pure in life. "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof". (Rom_6:12) To this end we must:

1. Avoid all the occasions that prompt to impurity:

1. idleness; (Eze_16:49)

2. evil company; (Pro_7:25) and

3. all other sins. (Pro_1:25)

4. Make a covenant with our eyes. (Job_31:1)

1. Watch over our thoughts. (Mal_2:16)

2. Delight in God"s Word. (Pro_2:10, Pro_2:16)

3. Continue in prayer. T.C. (Psa_119:37)

Vers. 3-5.

Warning against covetousness.

It is singular to find covetousness, which is often the sin of respectability, linked with sins of gross impurity. In reality it springs from selfishness, like these other sins. It has its origin in the same unholy root.

I CONSIDER THE NATURE OF COVETOUSNESS. It is the inordinate love of riches, manifesting itself in several ways.

1. In the eager anxiety to attain wealth, without respect either to God"s glory or our own spiritual good.

2. In a sinful acquisition of wealth by extortion or fraud. (1Ki_21:2, 1Ki_21:13; Pro_10:2 Pro_28:8)

3. In a reluctance to use our wealth for good ends. (1Ti_6:17, 1Ti_6:18)

II HOW IS COVETOUSNESS TO BE REGARDED AS "IDOLATRY?" It is to make a god of our possessions and to give them the homage of our hearts. All the essential elements of idolatry are included in this worldly disposition. The covetous man transfers to riches the love, desire, joy, trust, and labor which God demands for himself. His sin is all the greater because he knows that his god is no god. The warning of the text is applicable

(1) to all whose thoughts run more upon earth than upon heaven; (Luk_12:22, Luk_12:25, Luk_12:29)

(2) to all whose comfort depends upon worldly successes; (Luk_12:19)

(3) to all who grudge the time that is spent in religious duties. (Amo_8:5)

The sin of covetousness is, therefore, to be jealously avoided

(1) because it is odious to God "The covetous whom the Lord abhorreth"; (Psa_10:3)

(2) because it is destructive to ourselves, in turning our hearts from God, (1Jn_2:15) in filling our hearts with trouble and care, (1Ti_6:9, 1Ti_6:10) and in keeping us out of the kingdom of God (ver. 5). Let us, therefore, estimate the world at its true value, meditate much on the fatherly care of our God (Luk_12:31, Luk_12:32; Mat_6:25, Mat_6:26) act in faith upon the promises, (Heb_13:5) and remember the terrible brand of idolatry which rests upon covetousness. It is a solemn thought that the most common of all sins is the most serious in God"s sight. Yet there is nothing in the condemnation of this sin that justifies the theory of other-worldliness, or the neglect of the duties of common life. T.C.

HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS

Vers. 3-7.

Covetousness amongst the worst of human crimes.

fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them." The subject which we gather from these words is that covetousness is amongst the worst of human crimes.

I IT IS HERE CLASSED WITH CRIMES OF THE WORST CHARACTER, There are three sins amongst which covetousness is placed in the text: unbridled licentiousness, "fornication," and "whoremongery revolting indecency; "filthiness," that which is so unchaste and impure as to awaken universal disgust; and immoral speech speech that is frivolous, untruthful, obscene, profane. These are sins confessedly of enormous magnitude. All true souls recoil from them, all pure minds renounce them as a degradation of the race and an offence to Almighty God. But mark, amongst these covetousness is placed. It is ranked with them as related to them in moral vileness. More than this, it is singled out as worse than these covetous man, who is an idolater." What is idolatry? Holding anything nearer to the heart than God. The "covetous man" loves money more than anything else, and money is his god. We here in England are very zealous for the conversion of heathen idolaters. We create and sustain costly organizations, but there is no idolatry more real, more powerful, more damning, than the idolatry that prevails throughout England. What god in heathendom is more earnestly and constantly served than Mammon is served in this island? Before the introduction of Christianity into this country there were many idols here. In Scotland stood the temple of Mars; in Cornwall, the temple of Mercury; in Bangor, the temple of Minerva; at Malden, the temple of Victoria; in Bath, the temple of Apollo; at Leicester, the temple of Janus; at York, where St. Peter"s now stands, the temple of Bellona; in London, on the site of St. Paul"s Cathedral, the temple of Diana; and at Westminster, where the Abbey rears its venerable pile, a temple of Apollo." But Mammon now has a temple everywhere, a temple on every hill and in every valley, in every church and house.

Mammon has said to England, "Thou shalt have none other gods beside me," and England heartily responds, "Amen.

II IT IS HERE CLASSED WITH THE WORST OF CRIMES, AS EXCLUDING FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD. "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." From this passage may be inferred:

1. That heaven is a kingdom. There is rule and order there.

2. That heaven is a Divine kingdom. Kingdom of Christ and of God." Christ reigns there. He is in the midst of the throne; his Spirit animates all; his Spirit fills all with adoring wonder and worship. Christ reigns as God there. Basileia tou Cristou kai Qeou. Christ and God. The heavens are a kingdom managed, not by Divine partnership, it is governed by God in Christ.

3. That heaven excludes evil characters of all descriptions. How clearly and forcibly this is declared in Scripture! works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness ... of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of. (Gal_5:19-21) "Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." With the excluded will be the covetous man. Yes, though he has been a member of a Christian Church, though cultured in intellect, chaste in feeling, and refined in manners, though an eloquent preacher of the gospel of benevolence, he will find no admission into that world. He will be "without." With whom? Will he have a place set apart for himself? No, with the common damned.

III IT IS HERE CLASSED WITH THE WORST OF CRIMES REPUGNANT TO THE DIVINE NATURE. "For because of these things cometh the wrath of God." Paul says, in his letter to the Romans, that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." His deep, settled, immutable antagonism to wrong of all kinds is clearly revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But is there any sin more repugnant to the Divine nature than covetousness, which is idolatry? What sin has the Almighty denounced with greater frequency and force than that of idolatry? But why should covetousness be so abhorrent to the Almighty?

1. Because it involves a real-appropriation of the blessings of Providence. God"s will is that whatever a man, either by good fortune or by industry, obtains of this world"s goods, should be expended for the advancement of truth and the general promotion of human happiness. But the covetous man appropriates all to pamper his own appetites, gratify his own vanity, and promote his own selfish and ambitious ends.

2. Because it involves an utter perversion of his own spiritual nature. The powers of the soul are not given to amass material wealth, nor the affections to love it. On the contrary, they were given to gather elements of the highest knowledge, and to love and serve the Infinite supremely in all. The soul was made to have God, not money, as the dominant subject of thought and the dominant object of love.

3. Because it involves the promotion of misery in the universe. Nothing is more repugnant to the heart of the" loving God than misery. The cause of universal happiness is-his, but the covetous man is necessarily a promoter of misery in his own soul, misery in his circle, misery through the creation. God"s order is that no man should live unto himself, that all should labor for the common weal; in this way only the good of the universe can be served, its blessedness advanced, and its order maintained. Every man who sets himself up as his own end in labor and life opposes all the arrangements of God. He does what he can to create discords in its harmonies, miasma in its" atmosphere, poison in its streams. No wonder, then, that the "wrath of God" is against "the covetous man. D.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Eph_5:3. Let it not be once named.—After the things themselves are dead let their names never be heard.

Eph_5:4. Nor jesting.—“Chastened insolence,” as Aristotle’s description of it has been happily rendered. “Graceless grace” [of style], as Chrysostom called it. It is the oozing out of the essential badness of a man for whom polish and a versatile nature have done all they can.

Eph_5:5-6. Because of these things cometh the wrath of God, etc.—Look down beneath the pleasing manners to the nature. If such terms as are used in Eph_5:5 describe the man, he is simply one of Disobedience’s children, and all his versatility will not avert the descending wrath of God.

Eph_5:7. Be not ye therefore partakers with them.—Do not wish to share the frivolity and impiety of their life, as you would shun the wrath that inevitably awaits it. How could they so partake and continue to be what Eph_3:6 calls them?

Eph_5:8. Ye were … ye are … be.—The lesson must be learnt, and therefore reiteration is necessary.

Eph_5:9. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.—Neither here nor at Gal_5:22 does St. Paul intend a complete list of the fruits of the Spirit. St. John’s tree of life bore “twelve manner of fruits.” All Christian morality lies in the good, the right, and the true.

Eph_5:10. Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.—Each is to be an assayer—rejecting all base alloys. Nothing must be accepted because it looks like an angel of light—“the spirits” must be put to the proof (1Jn_4:1).

Eph_5:11. Rather reprove them.—It may be with a voice as firm as the Baptist’s; it may be by gentle and yet unflinching “showing up” of certain proceedings (cf. St. Joh_3:20). “This chastening reproof is an oral one,” says Meyer.

Eph_5:12. It is a shame even to speak of.—Though the only sign of their shame having touched them is that they seek the cover of secrecy, and our own cheeks burn as we speak of what they do, we must convict.

Eph_5:13. Made manifest by the light.—Whatever the light falls upon is no longer of the darkness, but belongs to the light. Shame is one of the influences by which the light conquers a soul from darkness.

Eph_5:14. Wherefore He saith.—What follows is “a free paraphrase from the Old Testament formed by weaving together Messianic passages—belonging to such a hymn as might be sung at baptisms in the Pauline Churches” (Findlay). The thought is that of the change from darkness to light—a change produced by the opening of the eyes to the light shining in the face of Jesus Christ.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Eph_5:3-14

The Children of Darkness and of Light.

I. The children of darkness are known by their deeds (Eph_5:3-5).—A loathsome and unsightly list! Sin marks its victims. Deeds done in darkness do not escape detection and exposure. The revolting sins of the heathen reveal the depth of wickedness to which man may sink when he abandons God and is abandoned of God. Every single sin, voluntarily indulged, weakens the power of self-control, and there is no deed of darkness a reckless sinner may not commit. Sensuality is a devil-fish—a vampire of the sea—preying upon and devouring the best powers of mind and body.

1. Their deeds exclude them from the inheritance of the good.—They have no “inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Eph_5:5). The children of darkness can have no company and no place with the children of light; the two cannot co-exist or blend together. The sinner excludes himself, and unfits himself for fellowship with the good. Their purity is a constant reproof of his vileness; he shrinks from their society, and hates them because they are so good. We may well be on our guard against sins that shut us out of the kingdom of grace on earth, and out of heaven hereafter.

2. Their deeds expose them to the divine wrath.—“Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience” (Eph_5:6). The wrath of God is already upon them (Rom_1:18), and shall remain so long as they are disobedient. Deeds such as theirs carry their own punishment; but there is also the righteous vengeance of God to reckon with. For sin God can have nothing but wrath; but yet that is mercifully restrained to afford every opportunity for repentance. The Roman magistrates, when they gave sentence upon any one to be scourged, had a bundle of rods tied hard with many knots laid before them. The reason was this: whilst the beadle was untying the knots, which he was to do by order and not in any other or sudden way, the magistrates might see the deportment and carriage of the delinquent, whether he was sorry for his fault and showed any hope of amendment, that then they might recall his sentence or mitigate his punishment; otherwise he was corrected so much the more severely. Thus God in the punishment of sinners. How patient is He! How loth to strike! How slow to anger!

II. The children of light are divinely illumined.—

1. They were once in darkness. “Ye were sometimes darkness” (Eph_5:8). Their present condition as children of the light should remind them by contrast of their former state, and should excite their gratitude to God for the change He had wrought in them. They were not to be deceived by specious arguments (Eph_5:6) that they could return to their old sins and yet retain their new inheritance. To go back to the old life is to go back to darkness.

2. Their possession of divine light is evident.—“But now are ye light in the Lord.… For the fruit of the Spirit [the fruit of light] is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Eph_5:8-9). True virtue is of the light and cannot be hid. Genuine religion manifests itself in goodness of heart, in righteousness of life, and in truthfulness of character and speech—in a holy reality that is both experienced and expressed. On Herder’s grave at Weimar there was placed by royal authority a cast-iron tablet with the words, “Light, Love, Life.” The life illumined by the Spirit is its own bright witness.

3. Their conduct aims at discovering what is acceptable to God.—“Walk as children of the light, … proving what is acceptable unto the Lord” (Eph_5:8; Eph_5:10). Their outward life must be in harmony with the new nature they have received. They were adopted as children of the light, and they must think, speak, and act in the light and with the light they had received. The light will show what it is that God approves; and striving in all things to please Him our light will increase. We may sometimes be mistaken, but we shall get light from our mistakes, as well as from our success, as to the will of God. Life is a trial, and our conduct will be the test as to how we are using the light God has given us. The light we shed will be a help and guide to others. There is a kind of diamond which, if exposed for some minutes to the light of the sun and then taken into a dark room, will emit light for some time. The marvellous property of retaining light and thereby becoming the source of light on a small scale shows how analogous to light its very nature must be. Those who touched the Saviour became sources of virtue to others. As Moses’ face shone when he came from the mount, so converse with spiritual things makes Christians the light which shines in the dark places of the earth. “Let your light so shine before men.”

III. The children of light cannot participate in deeds of darkness.—

1. They are to shun them. “Be not ye partakers with them … Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph_5:7; Eph_5:11). We may not actually commit certain sins; but if we tolerate or encourage them, we are partakers with the transgressors. The safest place is that which is farthest from evil. It is a perilous experiment to try how near we can approach and how far dally with sin without committing ourselves. The easiest way to resist temptation is to run away. It is beneath the dignity of the children of light to patronise or trifle with sin.

2. They are not even to speak of them.—“It is a shame even to speak of those things” (Eph_5:12). There are some subjects about which silence is not only the highest prudence but a sacred duty. The foolish talking and jesting of Eph_5:4 belonged to the period when they were the children of darkness. Sparkling humour refreshes; the ribald jest pollutes. The best way to forget sayings that suggest evil is never to speak of them.

3. They are to expose them by bringing the light of truth to bear upon them.—“But rather reprove them.… All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light,” etc. (Eph_5:11; Eph_5:13-14). Silent absence or abstinence is not enough. Where sin is open to rebuke it should at all hazards be rebuked. On the other hand, St. Paul does not warrant Christians in prying into the hidden sins of the world around them and playing the moral detective. Publicity is not a remedy for all evils, but a great aggravation of some, and the surest means of disseminating them. It is a shame—a disgrace to our common nature, and a grievous peril to the young and innocent—to fill the public prints with the nauseous details of crime, and to taint the air with its putridities. The fruit of the light convicts the unfruitful works of darkness. The light of the gospel disclosed and then dispelled the darkness of the former time. So will it be with the night of sin that is spread over the world. The light which shines upon sin-laden and sorrowful hearts shines on them to change them into its own nature. The manifested is light; in other words, if men can be made to see the true nature of their sin, they will forsake it. If the light can but penetrate their conscience, it will save them. “Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest.” With this song on her lips the Church went forth, clad in the armour of light, strong in the joy of salvation; and darkness and the works of darkness fled before her (Findlay).

Lessons.—The children of darkness and of light differ—

1. In their conduct.

2. In their spirit and aims.

3. In the way in which they are divinely regarded.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Eph_5:3-6. Christian Sobriety inculcated.

I. The vices condemned.—

1. Impurity. Fornication is sometimes used in Scripture to comprehend the grosser forms of uncleanness, as incest, adultery, and prostitution; but in common speech it is appropriated to intimacy between unmarried persons. If acts of uncleanness are criminal, so are impure thoughts and desires. The gospel forbids filthy communication, which indicates a vicious disposition and corrupts others. Christians must abstain from everything that tends to suggest wanton ideas, to excite impure desire, and to strengthen the power of temptation.

2. Covetousness.—An immoderate desire of riches.

3. Foolish talking and jesting.—The gospel is not so rigid and austere as to debar us from innocent pleasures and harmless amusements. Jesting is not foolish when used to expose the absurdity of error and the folly of vice. The apostle condemns lewd and obscene jesting, profane jesting, and reviling and defamatory jesting. Evil-speaking never wounds so deeply nor infuses in the wound such fatal poison as when it is sharpened by wit and urged home by ridicule.

II. The arguments subjoined.—

1. Impurity, covetousness, and foolish talking are unbecoming in saints.

2. Foolish talking and jesting are not convenient, as the heathen imagined them to be, but are criminal in their nature and fatal in their tendency.

3. The indulgence of these sins is inconsistent with a title to heaven.

4. These sins not only exclude from heaven, but bring upon the sinners the wrath of God.—Lathrop.

Eph_5:4. Against Foolish Talking and jesting.

I. In what foolish talking and jesting may be allowed.—

1. Facetiousness is not unreasonable which ministers harmless delight to conversation.

2. When it exposes things base and evil.

3. When it is a defence against unjust reproach. 4. When it may be used so as not to defile the mind of the speaker or do wrong to the hearer.

II. In what it should be condemned.—

1. All profane jesting or speaking loosely about holy things.

2. Abusive and scurrilous jesting which tends to damage our neighbour.

3. It is very culpable to be facetious in obscene and smutty matters.

4. To affect to value this way of speaking in comparison to the serious and plain way of speaking.

5. All vainglorious ostentation.

6. When it impairs the habitual seriousness that becomes the Christian.—Barrow.

Eph_5:6. The Dissipation of Large Cities.

I. The origin of a life of dissipation.—Young men on their entrance into the business of the world have not been enough fortified against its seducing influences by their previous education at home. Ye parents who, in placing your children on some road to gainful employment, have placed them without a sigh in the midst of depravity, so near and so surrounding that without a miracle they must perish, you have done an act of idolatry to the god of this world, you have commanded your household after you to worship him as the great divinity of their lives, and you have caused your children to make their approaches to his presence, and in so doing to pass through the fire of such temptations as have destroyed them.

II. The progress of a life of dissipation.—The vast majority of our young, on their way to manhood, are initiated into all the practices and describe the full career of dissipation. Those who have imbibed from their fathers the spirit of this world’s morality are not sensibly arrested in this career, either by the opposition of their friends or by the voice of their own conscience. Those who have imbibed an opposite spirit, and have brought it into competition with an evil world, and have at length yielded with many a sigh and many a struggle, are troubled with the upbraidings of conscience. The youthful votary of pleasure determines to be more guarded; but the entanglements of companionship have got hold of him, the inveteracy of habit tyrannises over all his purposes, the stated opportunity again comes round, and the loud laugh of his partners chases all his despondency away. The infatuation gathers upon him every month, a hardening process goes on, the deceitfulness of sin grows apace, and he at length becomes one of the sturdiest and most unrelenting of her votaries. He in his turn strengthens the conspiracy that is formed against the morals of a new generation, and all the ingenuous delicacies of other days are obliterated. He contracts a temperament of knowing, hackneyed, unfeeling depravity, and thus the mischief is transmitted from one year to another, and keeps up the guilty history of every place of crowded population.

III. The effects of a life of dissipation.—We speak not at present of the coming death and of the coming judgment, but of the change which takes place on many a votary of licentiousness when he becomes what the world calls a reformed man. He bids adieu to the pursuits and profligacies of youth, not because he has repented of them, but because he has outlived them. It is a common and easy transition to pass from one kind of disobedience to another; but it is not so easy to give up that rebelliousness of heart which lies at the root of all disobedience. The man has withdrawn from the scenes of dissipation, and has betaken himself to another way; but it is his own way. He may bid adieu to profligacy in his own person, but he lifts up the light of his countenance on the profligacy of others. He gives it the whole weight and authority of his connivance. Oh for an arm of strength to demolish this firm and far-spread compact of iniquity, and for the power of some such piercing and prophetic voice as might convince our reformed men of the baleful influence they cast behind them on the morals of the succeeding generation! What is the likeliest way of setting up a barrier against this desolating torrent of corruption? The mischief will never be combatted effectually by any expedient separate from the growth and the transmission of personal Christianity throughout the land.—T. Chalmers.

Eph_5:7-12. Fellowship in Wickedness and its Condemnation.

I. Illustrate this fellowship in wickedness.—

1. Not to oppose, in many cases, is to embolden transgressors, and to be partakers with them.

2. We have more direct fellowship with the wicked when we encourage them by our example.

3. They who incite and provoke others to evil works have fellowship with them.

4. They who explicitly consent to and actually join with sinners in their evil works have fellowship with them.

5. To comfort and uphold sinners in their wickedness is to have fellowship with them.

6. There are some who rejoice in iniquity when they have lent no hand to accomplish it.

II. Apply the arguments the apostle urges against it.—

1. One argument is taken from the superior light which Christians enjoy.

2. Another is taken from the grace of the Holy Spirit, of which believers are the subjects.

3. The works of darkness are unfruitful.

4. This is a shameful fellowship.

5. If we have fellowship with sinners in their works, we must share with them in their punishment.—Lathrop.

Eph_5:8. Light in Darkness.—I was in a darkened room that I might observe the effect produced by the use of what is called luminous paint. A neat card on which the words “Trust in the Lord” were printed rested upon the bookcase and shone out clearly in the darkness. The effect startled me. How remarkable that if from any cause the light of sun or day failed to rest upon the card its luminousness gradually declined, but returned when the sun’s action infused fresh light! Truly we also, if hidden from the face of our Lord, cease to shine. “Are ye light in the Lord? walk as children of light.”—H. Varley.

Eph_5:9. Fruit of the Spirit.—As oftentimes when walking in a wood near sunset, though the sun himself be hid by the height and bushiness of the trees around, yet we know that he is still above the horizon from seeing his beams in the open glades before us illuminating a thousand leaves, the several brightnesses of which are so many evidences of his presence. Thus it is with the Holy Spirit: He works in secret, but His work is manifest in the lives of all true Christians. Lamps so heavenly must have been lit from on high.—J. C. Hare.

Eph_5:10. The Rule of Christian Conduct.—

1. We cannot conform ourselves to what is acceptable to the Lord and walk as children of light except we make serious search into the rule of duty revealed in the word and do our utmost to come up to that rule. We walk not acceptably when we do things rashly without deliberation, or doubtingly after deliberation, nor when the thing done is in itself right, but we do it not from that ground, but to gratify ourselves.

2. It is not sufficient to make this inquiry in order to some few and weighty actions, but in order to all, whether greater or less, whether advantage or loss may follow our conforming to the rule.

3. The finding out of what is acceptable to the Lord, especially in some intricate cases, is not easily attained. There must be an accurate search, together with an exercising ourselves in those things we already know to be acceptable, that so we may experimentally know them to be such, and get our knowledge bettered in those things of which we are ignorant.—Fergusson.

Eph_5:11-12. Works of Darkness.—

1. Though we are not in all cases to abstain from the fellowship of wicked men, but may converse with them as we are bound by necessity, or by any civil, religious, or natural bond, yet no tie of that kind can warrant us to partake with them in their sins.

2. Though the command to reprove the sins of others is an affirmative precept, and not binding at all times and in all cases, yet not reproving when occasion offers is a partaking with them in their sins.

3. There should be such a holy bashfulness in Christians as to think shame to utter in speech, at least without detestation, those things godless sinners are not ashamed to practise. Ministers in their public preachings should be modest and sparing in deciphering filthy sins, lest they teach others how to commit the sin they reprove.

4. When men do not seek the veil of secrecy to cover their sins, but glory in their shame, they are more corrupt than the grossest of pagans.—Fergusson.

Eph_5:13-14. Slumbering Souls and their Awakening.

I. The character of the persons addressed.—They are in a state of sleep.

1. If you allow yourselves in the practice of known wickedness, your conscience is asleep.

2. If you live in the customary neglect of self-examination, you are in a state of slumber.

3. If you have never been in any degree affected with a sense of your guilt and your dependence on the mercy of God in Christ, you are among those who are asleep.

4. If you have no conflicts with sin and temptation, you are in a state of slumber.

5. The prevalence of a sensual and carnal disposition is a sign of spiritual death.

6. Stupidity under the warnings of God’s word and providence indicates such a state of soul as the Scripture compares to sleep.

7. The soul in which the temper of the gospel is formed hungers and thirsts after righteousness, desires spiritual growth, and reaches after perfection.

II. The awakening call.—

1. This awakening must suppose and imply a conviction of your sin and a sense of your danger.

2. This awaking from sleep and arising from the dead imply a real repentance of sin and turning to God.

3. They who have awoke from their sleep and risen from the dead will experience the properties and maintain the exercises of a holy and spiritual life.

III. The encouragement to attend to the awakening call.—“Christ shall give thee light.”

1. This may be understood as a promise of pardon and eternal life on your repentance.

2. The words import God’s gracious attention to awakened souls when they frame their doings to turn to Him.—Lathrop.

Eph_5:13. The Light of God.

I. Light comes from God.—God is light, and He wishes to give light to His children. “Whatsoever doth make manifest is light”—that which is made manifest is light. There has been a steady progress in the mind of the Christian race, and this progress has been in the direction of light. Has it not been so in our notions of God?—a gradual discovery that when God is manifested, behold, God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all—a gradual vindication of His character from those dark and horrid notions of the Deity which were borrowed from the pagans and the Jewish rabbis—a gradual return to the perfect good news of a good God which was preached by St. John and by St. Paul. The day shall come when all shall be light in the Lord—when all mankind shall know God from the least unto the greatest, and, lifting up free foreheads to Him who made them and redeemed them by His Son, shall in spirit and in truth worship the Father.

II. In the case of our fellow-men whatsoever is made manifest is light.—How easy it was to have dark thoughts about our fellow-men simply because we did not know them,—easy to condemn the negro to perpetual slavery, when we knew nothing of him but his black face; or to hang by hundreds the ragged street boys, while we disdained to inquire into the circumstances which had degraded them; or to treat madmen as wild beasts, instead of taming them by wise and gentle sympathy. But with a closer knowledge of our fellow-creatures has come toleration, pity, sympathy. Man, in proportion as he becomes manifest to man, is seen, in spite of all defects and sins, to be hallowed with a light from God who made him.

III. It has been equally so in the case of the physical world.—Nature, being made manifest, is light. Science has taught men to admire where they used to dread, to rule where they used to obey, to employ for harmless uses what they were once afraid to touch, and where they once saw only fiends to see the orderly and beneficent laws of the All-good and Almighty God. Everywhere, as the work of nature is unfolded to our eyes, we see beauty, order, mutual use, the offspring of perfect love as well as perfect wisdom. Let us teach these things to our children. Tell them to go to the light and see their heavenly Father’s works manifested, and know that they are, as He is, Light.—C. Kingsley.

Eph_5:14. Moral Stupidity.—How many scarcely think of God from day to day! It cannot therefore be uncharitable to consider the mass of the people, compared with the wakefulness their infinite interests require, as sunk in a profound slumber. Unless this slumber is soon broken they must sleep the sleep of eternal death.

I. Search for the cause of this stupidity.—The proximate cause may be comprehended in these two words—ignorance and unbelief. The remote cause is opposition to God and truth. Were not the heart opposed, no man with the Bible in his hand could remain ignorant of truths which claim to have so important a bearing on his eternal destiny. Fortified by sevenfold ignorance, men can no more be awakened to contemplate their condition with alarm than the pagans of the wilderness. It is perfectly in character for them to slumber. But there are men who are respectable for their knowledge of Christian truth who yet are asleep. The cause with them is unbelief—the want of a realising sense. Their understanding assents to the awful verities of religion, but they do not realisingly believe them.

II. Apply some arguments to remove the evil.—Consider that these awful truths are as much realities as though you were now overwhelmed with a sense of their importance. Neither the ignorance nor the unbelief of man can change eternal truth. God is as holy, as awful in majesty, He is as much your Creator, Preserver, and Master, He as much holds your destinies in His hands, as though you were now lying at His feet beseeching Him not to cast you down to hell. What would it avail if all the people should disbelieve that the sun will ever rise again, or that spring-time and harvest will ever return? Can the soldier annihilate the enemy by marching up to the battery with his eyes and ears closed? You have the same means with others: why should you remain ignorant while they are informed? If your knowledge is competent and it is unbelief that excludes conviction, then call into action the powers of a rational soul and cast yourselves for help on God. If you ever mean to awake, awake now. The longer you sleep the sounder you sleep. The longer you live without religion the less likely that you will ever possess it. You are sleeping in the presence of an offended God. In His hands you lie, and if He but turn them you slide to rise no more.—E. D. Griffin.

The Call of the Gospel to Sinners.

I. The state in which the gospel finds mankind.—A state of sleep and of death.

1. It is a state of insensibility and unconcern with respect to the concerns of another world.—Busied about trifles, men overlook the great concerns of eternity. Having their minds darkened, they see no world but the present, they live as if they were to live here for ever. And if at any time this false peace is shaken, they try all means to prevent it from being destroyed, and to lull themselves again to rest.

2. How indisposed and unwilling men are to set about the work of true religion.—Nothing but this religion of which men are so ignorant, about which they care so little, against which they have conceived such a dislike, can in the end deliver them from everlasting shame, sorrow, and punishment. Here is their extreme misery and danger. They are unconcerned about an object which of all others ought to concern them most, and are set against the only remedy which can be of any real service to them. They are every moment liable to fall into utter perdition; but they are not aware of their danger, and reject the only hand which is stretched out to save them.

II. The duty the gospel calls on them to discharge.—To awake out of sleep and arise from the dead.

1. Their duty is to consider their state and danger.

2. To break off their sins by repentance.

3. To seek the knowledge and favour of God.

III. The encouragement the gospel affords.—

1. Christ will give thee knowledge. He will enlighten thy darkened mind, He will teach thee by His good Spirit, and will effectually lead thee into all saving truth.

2. Christ will give thee peace.—Whatever peace thou mayest have arising from not knowing and not feeling that thou art a sinner and daily exposed to the wrath of God, the peace which Christ offers thee is a peace which will arise from a consciousness that thy sins are forgiven, and that, although thou art a sinner, thou art yet reconciled to God.

3. Christ will give thee holiness.—Holiness is our meetness for heaven. It is that state and disposition of heart which alone can fit us for seeing and serving God.—E. Cooper.

A Summons to Spiritual Light.

I. A lamentable moral condition.—Sleep implies a state of inactivity and security. Men are busily employed about their worldly concerns; but a lamentable supineness prevails with respect to spiritual things. The generality do not apprehend their souls to be in any danger—death, judgment, heaven, and hell do not seem worthy their notice. God’s threatenings against them are denounced without effect—they are like Jonah, sleeping in the midst of a storm. Death includes the ideas of impotence and corruption. An inanimate body cannot perform any of the functions of life. It has within itself the seeds and the principles of corruption. The soul also, till quickened from the dead, is in a state of impotence, it is incapable of spiritual action or discernment. Yet, notwithstanding this state appears so desperate, we must address to every one that is under it the command, “Awake.” Your inactivity and security involve you in the deepest guilt; your corruption of heart and life provokes the majesty of God. Nor is your impotence any excuse for your disobedience. They who exert their feeble powers may expect divine assistance. To convince us that none shall fail who use the appointed means God enforces His command with

II. A promise.—Sleep and death are states of intellectual darkness: hence light is promised to those who obey the divine mandate. Light in Scripture imparts knowledge (Isa_8:20), holiness (1Jn_1:7), comfort (Psa_97:11), and glory (Col_1:12). And all these blessings shall they receive from Christ, the fountain of light (Mal_4:2; Joh_1:9).

Lessons.—

1. Let each one consider the command addressed to himself—“Awake thou.”

2. Let all our powers be called into action.

3. In exerting ourselves let us expect the promised aid.—Theological Sketch Book.

The Gospel Call and Promise.

I. Many of mankind are in a state of deadly sleep.—In sleep the animal spirits retire to their source, the nerves are collapsed or embraced; and as the nerves are the medium of sensation and motion, the whole system is in a state of insensibility and inactivity. How exactly resembling this is your spiritual state.

1. You are insensible.—Your eyes and ears are closed; and you have no proper sense of pleasure or of pain.

2. You are in a state of security.—You have no fear of evil, no apprehension of danger, and consequently no concern for your safety.

3. You are in a state of inactivity.—You are not inquiring, labouring, wrestling. When the body is locked in slumber, thought roves at random and produces gay dreams of fancied happiness. Thus many are dreaming their lives away.

(1) In this sleep many are as void of sense and motion as if they were actually dead.

(2) In common sleep a person after due repose spontaneously awakes, renewed in vigour. But from this sleep, unless God should awake you, you will never awake till the heavens be no more.

(3) It is a sleep unto death. Like one who has taken a large quantity of opium, unless you are awakened by some external cause, you will insensibly sink into the second death, the death which never dies.

II. God is using means to awaken them.—While you are asleep, light, however bright and clear, shines upon you in vain. Till warning has waked attention, instruction and illumination will be lost upon you.

1. God calls you to awake from your dreams of fancied happiness, and reflect upon the vanity of the objects by which you are deluded.

2. Struggle to shake off the dull slumber which weighs you down.

3. Consider your misery and danger.

4. Rouse all that is within you to activity. God calls you—

(1) By the language of His law.

(2) By the severe dispensations of His providence.

(3) By the strivings of His Spirit.

(4) By the voice of the gospel.

III. God will give light to all who awake at His call.—It is the peculiar property of light to make manifest (Eph_5:13). Christ will give you light.

1. He shall make manifest to yourself your character and your situation.

2. You shall behold the light of life.

3. He shall reveal to you the God of pardoning love.

4. He shall chase the darkness of sin from your soul, and you shall walk in the light of holiness.

5. He shall put an end to your mourning.

Learn.—

1. The deceitfulness and destructive character of sin.

2. How fully God provides for your salvation.

3. Hear the voice of God.—E. Hare.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

2) Look into thyself and think of purity

(Eph_5:3-5)

3But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once [even] 4named among you, as becometh saints; Neither7 filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor 5[or] jesting, [things] which8 are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know [of this ye are sure,9 knowing] that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who10 is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of [omit of] God.11

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The exhortation; Eph_5:3-4.

Eph_5:3. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness [πορνεία δὲ καὶ πᾱσα ἀκαθαρσία ἢ πλεονεξία].—“But,” δέ, indicates the transition to another part of the exhortation (Meyer). Πορνεία cannot here, where Christians are addressed, be taken in the heathen sense; the Scriptural meaning (in both Old and New Testament) is the prominent one. Hence it refers not to the coarsest exhibition, but to what is within, to the heart. It comes first as something general and comprehensive; applying to act, word, disposition, as indeed the context combines temper and walk in one, to men among themselves and in relation to God. “And all uncleanness” gives prominence to one particular side of this, pointing to every form and mode of the same. “Or covetousness” marks the other side, which is to be clearly distinguished, hence the disjunctive ἤ12, “or,” which indicates that πᾶσα, “all,” belongs here also. The former refers to impure, unchaste, ungodly, dalliance and contact, solitary uncleanness; the latter to greedy lusting, from a distance and ungratified. This accords with Eph_4:19, where both substantives are found.

Let it not be even named among you, μηδὲ ὁνομαζέσθω ἐν ὑμῖν.—Comp. Eph_5:12; Psa_16:4. Such a thing should not even be taken up in speech, much less be done. ̓Εν ὑμῖν=ἐν μέαῳ ὑμῶν. The prohibition is of course to be limited: sine necessitate (Bengel). It is incorrect to explain: Such a thing should not be told of them, as 1Co_5:1 (Grotius, Bengel).

As becometh saints.—Καθώς, as in Eph_5:2; with τρέπει ἁγίοις, we should compare ἀξίως (Eph_4:17) and ὁαιότης (Eph_4:24), with which the introduction of such things into the speech is irreconcilable. [“Were the Apostle to say, Let despondency be banished, he might add, as becometh believers, or, Let enmity be suppressed, he might subjoin, as becometh the brethren; but he pointedly says in this place, “as becometh saints” (Eadie).—R.]

Eph_5:4. Neither filthiness, αἰσχρότης.—This evidently includes more than αἰσχρολογία (Col_3:8). Although the antithesis (εὐχαριστία) points to shameful words (Luther), neither the context, which places αἰσχρότης beside μωρολογία nor the word itself require an exclusive reference to speech. Still less is it to be limited to lewd talk. Bengel refers it also to gestus, etc.

Nor foolish talking, καὶ μωρολογία.—[Textual Note1. Should ἢ be accepted here, we should substitute or for nor, as is done in the case of the next substantive.—R.] According to the New Testament conception of μωρός, “fool” (Mat_5:22; Psa_14:1; Psa_53:2), this means godless discourse; it is not merely stultiloquium, insipid talk, silly babbling (Calvin, [Hodge] Meyer, Schenkel). Luther hits the meaning with: Narrentheidinge, buffoonery, which denotes what is high-flown, pompous, in loose discourse. See Juetting: Bibl. Wörterbuch p. 189. [Trench, Syn. § Eph 34: “The talk of fools, which is folly and sin together.”—R.]

Or jesting, ἢ εὐτραπελία (from εὐ and τρέπω) means strictly urbanitas, a habit of cultivated people, not without adroitness and not without frivolity. Luther: jest. Bengel aptly says: subtilior ingenio nititur; this refers to the form, the previous term to the purport. The Vulgate is incorrect: scurrilitas. [Comp. Trench, § 34. on this word. He refers to “the profligate old man” of the Miles gloriosus (Plautus), who is exactly the εὐτράπελος, and remarkably enough an Ephesian, boasting as though such wit were an Ephesian birthright. See also Barrow’s famous sermon on wit from this text (Vol. 1, Serm. 14), an extract from which is given by Eadie in loco.—R.]

Things which are not convenient, τάοὐκ ἀνήκοντα.—This gives prominence to the wider range, beyond the lewdness and the coarser forms. In spite of μὴ καθήκοντα (Rom_1:28) we found οὐκ here, because the negation has coalesced with the word in one conception. See Winer, p. 452. As a predicate we must borrow an absint (Bengel) from μὴ ὀνομαζέσθω. [This phrase is not to be limited to the last of the three substantives, but is “in apposition to the last two words, to both of which εὐχαριστία, as denoting oral expression yet implying inward feeling, forms a clear contrast.”—R.]

But rather giving of thanks, μᾶλλον δὲ εὐχαριστία—ἀνήκει, as Bengel aptly supplies out of the preceding context, remarking: linguæ abusus opponitur sanctus et tamen Iætus usus, Eph_5:18-19. Non conveniunt abusus et usus εὐτραπηλία et εὐχαριστία, concinna paronomasia; illa turbat animam (et quidem subtilis aliquando jocus et lepus tenerum gratiæ sensum, Iædit) hæc exhilirat.13 As “beloved children” they have ever again to thank God. The reference is not to grace of discourse (Jerome, Calvin, and others, Stier includes this with the other), nor to pudicitia (Heinsius).

Eph_5:5. Special motive. For this ye are sure, knowing [τοῦτο γὰρἴατε γινώσκοντες].—“For” adds a ground, in order to strengthen the exhortation as a consequence therefrom. Accordingly ἔστε [ἴστε] γινώσκοντες is to be taken as an indicative [Meyer, Eadie, Alford and others], not as imperative (Vulgate, Luther, Bengel and others). The participle indicates the mode of knowing as of their own perception (Meyer), insight. Τοῦτο, “this,” placed in advance, points to what is stated afterwards, the import of which cannot be unknown to Christians. Winer (p. 333) is therefore incorrect: What is said in Eph_5:3-4, ye know, since ye perceive, that, etc. [This reference of τοῦτο to what follows is doubtful to say the least. It seems quite correct to refer it, as the object of ἴστε, to what precedes, γινώσκοντες being joined with ὅτι. Braune takes no notice of the correct reading, an inadvertence which probably modifies his opinion of the construction. The combination of finite verb and participle is not to be explained as Hebraistic, since the verbs are different.—R.]

That no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man.—The concrete terms (πόρνος, ἀκάθαρτος, πλεονέλτης), here occurring instead of the abstract ones mentioned in Eph_5:3, must be taken in the same sense. [The literal sense is: “that every fornicator or (ἤ individualizes here) unclean man, or covetous man, who is an idolater, hath not inheritance.” The negation is transferred to the subject according to English usage.—R.]

Who is an idolater, ὅς ἐστιν εἰδωλολάτρης.—This relative clause not only characterizes, but also gives a reason for the fact to be stated. On this account and because “who” is limited to the last term altogether without warrant, the clause is to be applied to “every whoremonger, unclean person, covetous man.” It is not the covetous man alone who is an idolater, having this world’s goods as his god (Mat_6:24; 1Ti_6:10); Paul holds “belly” and “glory” also as “god” for the enemies of the cross (Php_3:19). The proof lacks aptness, if that be not attributed to the first two, which is predicated of the third, who is not an idolater more especially than the former. The clause is incorrectly referred to the “covetous man” alone (Meyer, Schenkel, Bleek); Col_3:5 does not prove this, still less can it be said that Paul’s self-denial, which unselfishly offered up all, led him to affirm this of covetousness alone, since he was just as free from lust and uncleanness. [In this wide reference of the relative clause Braune is sustained by Harless, Stier and others, but the more limited view is that of Eadie, Hodge, Alford, Ellicott and most. It is more natural and obvious, since all that can be urged in favor of the other view but proves that the reference may be thus wide, not that it is. And covetousness is more specially idolatry, the other sins are but more subtle forms of this. If ὅ be accepted as the correct reading, then the reference is necessarily confined to the last word. See Alford in loco.—R.]

Hath any inheritance, οὖκ ἔχει κληρ ονομίαν.—See Eph_1:11. It is not=οὐ κληρονομήσουσιν, “shall not inherit” (Gal_5:21; 1Co_6:9-10), nor κληρονομῆσαι οὐ δύνανται (1Co_15:50). It is the fact respecting the status; permanent, prevalent sin excludes from the kingdom of God, effects the repelling of the arrhabo, the Holy Ghost (Eph_1:13-14); “hath an inheritance” is not=inherits the kingdom, since the former marks the heirship, the latter the entrance of the heir. To accept a certain future relation viewed as present, will not suffice (Bengel). [See Winer, p. 249. “Has no inheritance,” can have none, this being a law of God’s moral government of the world (Eadie, Ellicott), an eternal verity of that kingdom (Alford).—R.]

In the kingdom of Christ and God, ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ Χριστοῦ καῖ Οεοῦ.—Βασιλεία means the kingdom, where God in Christ is the Ruler, and His people belong to Him, and hence to be distinguished from ἐκκλησία, to which the fornicator and such characters belong, without having part in the former. (See Doctr. Note 5.) Bengel is excellent: articulus simplex, summam unitatem indicans. The expression here depends on the fact that Christ’s and God’s kingdom is one (Eph_5:12), that Christ’s kingdom is also God’s kingdom; though this first appears at the end in glory (Rev_9:15), the development advancing through the Church. Accordingly it is incorrect to explain it as meaning the kingdom of Christ, who is also God (Harless) [Hodge and many others] though Christ is termed God (Rom_9:5), or can be thus termed [against Meyer].

[Alford: “No distinction is to be made, Χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ being in the closest union. Nor is any specification needed that the kingdom of Christ is also the kingdom of God, as would be made with the second article. This follows as a matter of course: and thus the words bear no legitimate rendering, except on the substratum of our Lord’s Divinity. But on the other hand we cannot safely say here that the same Person is intended by Χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ, merely on account of the omission of the article. For 1) any introduction of such a predication regarding Christ would here be manifestly out of place, not belonging to the context: 2) θεός is so frequently and unaccountably anarthrous, that it is not safe to ground any such inference from its use here.” So Eadie, Ellicott and many others. The inferential proof of the Divinity of Christ thus afforded is well-nigh as strong as, certainly more defensible than, that resulting from the other view.—R.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The life of the Christian, like Christian ethics, must pursue sin in its coarsest forms and manifestations even into its most secret, refined propensities; it depends upon the substance; this is to be rejected in every form. Christian culture has a sharp eye and delicate perception for evil under its elegant appearance, and a powerful will and apt word for the refusal and overcoming of the same: it can have no pleasure in elegant forms under which wickedness conceals itself.

2. What was of validity in the morals of the Persians (Herodotus I., 138): ἄσσα δέ σφι ποιέειν οὐκ ἐξεστι ταῦτα οὐδὲ λέγειν ἔξεστι, every Christian must accept as valid to this extent, that he says: What is more becoming to do or say, that thou shouldst not even think. A word often includes more evil in itself than an act, and a thought than a word; even if the evil thought be less mischievous than the act, because it is only a thought not an act. The sinful act of the non-christian is at all events as a rule less wicked than the Christian sinful word or temper; as the same is true of a neglected Christian child, over against one carefully trained, or of the same man, as different now and formerly, or on festival or fast day with its elevation and in the press of labor and the throng of the world.

3. The Christian’s position is dignity, which preserves the worthiness of the person in a pure life no less than in pure doctrine with tender conscientiousness.

4. Every sin stands connected with idolatry: it remains the same, whether thou makest a god of the goods of this world in covetousness, or of the lust of this world in pursuit of pleasure, or of thine own Ego in pride. Paul terms covetousness not the (ἡ) but a root (ἥζα) of all evil (1Ti_4:10). The same is true of the lust of the flesh and the pride of life (1Jn_2:16).

[Hodge is however perfectly correct in saying: “The analogy between this supreme love of riches, this service of mammon and idolatry, is more obvious and more distinctly recognized in Scripture than between idolatry and any other of the sins mentioned. It is well that this should be understood, that men should know that the most common of all sins is the most heinous in the sight of God; for idolatry, which consists in putting the creature in the place of God, is everywhere in His word denounced as the greatest of all sins in His sight. The fact that it is compatible with outward decorum, and with the respect of men, does not alter its nature. It is the permanent and controlling principle of an irreligious heart and life, turning the soul away from God. There is no cure for this destructive love of money, but using it for other than selfish purposes. Riches, therefore, must ruin their possessor, unless he employs them for the good of others and for the glory of God.”—R.]

5. The kingdom of Christ and of God is not precisely the church. The former marks the authority, the latter the people; that refers to the power, which orders, manages, governs, this to the grace which chooses, attracts, trains, guides and endows; the former has to do with powers, which are applied and with laws which are established and administered. Both however have one end: God’s glory and the creature’s salvation. The kingdom of God and Christ is wider and narrower than the church. It stretches itself over the time antecedent to the church, which should become the kingdom of God, and embraces all, who obey and permit themselves to be drawn by the will of the Ruler, God in Christ, so far as the same is known, in His laws given to His creatures in nature from the very creation, in their conscience and in the order about and above them. All moral natures of every kind, childlike, truth seeking souls belonging thereto (Mat_8:12; Mar_12:34; Joh_18:36-37). To this belong all historical leadings of nations, all guidance to individuals, all the effects of power and wisdom, which prepare the way for the church. The kingdom is God’s as well as Christ’s (Mat_13:41; Joh_18:36 f.). As before the church and for the church the kingdom is more extended. But at the same time it becomes less extended within the church. There it applies to those called as the people of God, to those who obey the call; those who resist, who are indifferent, who hold only externally to the church, even though they hold in high regard a moral life, as is done without the church as well, who undervalue or despise the faith of the Scriptures or the church, or rely on the latter and neglect the former,—all withdraw themselves from the “kingdom” within the church. The word is to be taken in this latter sense here (Eph_5:5). At the end of the world both come together: since that will be the fulness of time, when the Son of man shall appear in glory.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.

Comp. Doctr. Notes.

From the wanderings of the flesh in the insubordination of its appetites and of society in loose talk, we should take occasion, not to run away and forsake the world, but to guard ourselves, and so to strive in ourselves, that God’s pardoning love is not in vain, and sanctification is not disturbed. Neither happiness, nor pleasure, nor property is the aim and task of life, but the formation of the character, of that stamp with His image received in creation and renewed in redemption. To be covetous in what is noblest, to be impure in what is most exalted, to be disorderly in what is spiritual and heavenly is an abomination of abominations. Such a condition excludes from God and God’s kingdom, in the Church, its service and government. Take heed to that, teacher and preacher. Be mindful of it always in prayer and public service.

Starke:—In Christianity exact bounds are placed upon our words, far more so than is done by mere reason; Mat_12:36. Hear this, ye buffoons! ye cannot boast yourselves of Christianity.—You betray by this too well the bottom of your yet unsanctified hearts.—Could we find a register of those whom God as a just Judge will exclude from heaven, the first place as a rule would be given to those who break the Seventh Commandment.

Rieger:—The world often gives its uncleanness the name of love-affairs; but the word love in the Scriptures is far too good to be applied to any such things.

Heubner:—No man has such a horror of all sins of the flesh as the Christian; his destiny, his fellowship, his Exemplar, his future inheritance, all require him to be pure.—Paul describes the Christian’s propriety in speech, distinguishing three kinds of obnoxious talk: 1. Such as offends and injures the sense of virtue, that is, impure, indecent, shameless talking; 2. Such as opposes the reason and offends the sense of truth, that is, foolish, silly, senseless, insipid talking; 3. Such as hinders religious earnestness, designed only to raise a laugh.—Every prevailing sin removes us from God. The covetous commit idolatry with their money, the lustful with their flesh. If then it be asked which is more compatible with religion, a disposition to lust or avarice, the latter seems less reconcilable. The covetous man imagines, because he perhaps restrains himself from many vices, that he is better, and covetousness as something relative is more difficult to recognize.—The kingdom of Christ is the medium and condition of the king dom of God, through Christ the kingdom of God becomes predominant. The kingdom of Christ, in so far as it is an external institution, yields to the kingdom of God.

Passavant:—The Greeks loved a fine joke, seasoned and adorned with wit and grace. But under the jest and its elegant dress, an impure and low sense was often concealed.—Look, wit is a dangerous gift, and to give it play brings discomfort and pain.

Stier:—The worst in front, the obscenities, double entendres; there are also obscenities of mammon, nastinesses arising from pride and worldliness, for which the Holy Ghost has the same aversion in His saints.

[Eadie:—Into Christ’s kingdom the fornicator and sensualist cannot come; for, unsanctified and unprepared, they are not susceptible of its spiritual enjoyments, and are filled with antipathy to its unfleshly occupations; and specially into God’s kingdom “the covetous man, who is an idolater,” cannot come, for that God is not his God, and disowning the God of the kingdom, he is self-excluded. As his treasure is not there, so neither there could his heart find satisfaction and repose.—R.]

Footnotes:

[7]Eph_5:4.—[The best established reading as respects the particles is (Rec.): καί—καί—ἤ (?Song of Solomon 2 B. D.3 K. L., most cursives and versions). א1 has ἤ instead of the second και, while ἤ is found three times in A. D.1 F., fathers (Lachmann, Meyer, Braune), and in others καί throughout.—R.]

[8]Eph_5:4.—[א. A. B., 3 cursives have: ἁ̓ οὐκ ἀνῆκεν (accepted by Lachmann, Alford. and others) instead of τά οὐκ ἀνήκοντα (Rec., D. F. K. L., Meyer, Ellicott, Braune and most). The latter is well supported and lectio difficilior, but neither external nor internal grounds are altogether decisive.—R.]

[9]Ver 5.—[The Rec. has ἔατε on the authority of D.3 K. L., but א. A. B. D. F. G., 30 cursives, good versions support ἴατε, which is accepted by nearly all recent editors. The emendation above conforms to the correct reading.—R.]

[10]Eph_5:5.—[The reading ὅ is found in א. B., accepted by Lachmann and Alford. The Rec. has ὅς, which has more uncial support. In F. G. the neuter occurs with εἰδωλολατρεία, which helps to account for the change to the neuter.—R.]

[11]Eph_5:5.—א. B. and most: Χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ. We find also θεοῦ καῖ Χριστοῦ, Χριστοῦ θεοῦ, and simply Χριστοῦ. The first is not only better supported, but lectio difficilior. [The second of should be omitted to indicate the close connection implied in the omission of the article before θεοῦ.—R.]

[12][“The ἤ is not explanatory, but has its full disjunctive force, serving to distinguish πλεονεξία from more special sins of the flesh” (Ellicott). On the last noun see Eph_4:19. “It is greed, avarice, unconquerable love of appropriation, morbid lust of acquisition, carrying in itself a violation of almost every precept of the Decalogue” (Eadie). This original notion must not be overridden by the connection with sensual sins.—R.]

[13][Meyer and Ellicott supply γινέσθω ἐν ὑμῖν; Eadie suggests that ὀνομαζέσθω still guides the construction: “Rather let thanksgiving be named—let there be vocal expression to your grateful emotions.” Stier and Alford follow Bengal.—“There is a play perhaps on the similar sound of εὐτραπελία and εὐχαριστία, which may account for the latter not finding so complete a justification in the sense as we might expect: the connection being apparently, ‘your true cheerfulness and play of fancy will be found, not in buffoonery, but in the joy of a heart overflowing with a sense of God’s mercies.’ ”—Alford.—R.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:3-5 God’s people (literally holy ones) must have a holy lifestyle, avoiding the immorality common among unbelievers (cp. 4:19; Col 3:5).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Eph 5:3. Πορνεία, fornication) impure love.—ἢ πλεονεξία, or covetousness) Eph 5:5, ch. Eph 4:19.—μηδὲ ὀνομζέσθω, let it not be even named) viz. as a thing (ever) done; comp. 1Co 5:1, ἀκούεται, it is reported commonly that, etc.; or (let it not be named) without necessity: comp. Eph 5:4-12.—πρέπει, becomes) Its opposite is οὐκ ἀνήκοντα, which are not convenient [proper], Eph 5:4.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_5:3. Δέ] leading over to another portion of the exhortation.

ἀκαθαρσία and πλεονεξία, quite as at Eph_4:19, the two main vices of heathendom. The latter thus is here neither insatiability in lust, as Heinsius (controverted by Salmasius, de foen. Trap. p. 121 ff.), Estius, Locke, Baumgarten, Michaelis, Zachariae, and others would take it, nor imprimis de prostibulis, quae sunt vulgato corpore, ut quaestum lucrentur, Koppe, Stolz, but: avarice.

ἤ] is not equivalent to καί (Salmasius, Schleusner), nor yet explicative (Heinsius), but disjunctive, separating another vice from the correlative πορνεία καὶ πᾶσα ἀκαθαρσία (comp. Fritzsche, ad Marc. p. 275 f.); neither fornication and every kind of uncleanness, nor avarice, nor shamelessness (Eph_5:4), etc.

μηδὲ ὀνομαζέσθω ἐν ὑμῖν] not once be named, etc.; ἱκανῶς τὸ μυσαρὸν τῶν εἰρημένων ὑπέδειξε, καὶ αὐτὰς αὐτῶν προσηγορίας τῆς μνήμης ἐξορίσαι κελεύσας, Theodoret. Comp. Eph_5:12. Dio Chrys. p. 360 B: στάσιν δὲ οὐδὲ ὀνομάζειν ἄξιον παρʼ ὑμῖν. Herod, i. 138: ἅσσα δέ σφι ποιέειν οὐκ ἔξεστι, ταῦτα οὐδὲ λέγειν ἔξεστι. Dem. 1259, 17: ἃ καὶ ὀνομάζειν ὀκνήσαιμʼ ἄν.

καθὼς πρέπει ἁγίοις] namely, that these vices should not once be mentioned among them. So αἰσχρὰ ὀνόματα (Plat. Rep. p. 344 B, and Stallbaum in loc.) are they!

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph 5:3 . πορνεία δὲ καὶ πᾶσα ἀκαθαρσία : but fornication and all uncleanness . The better order ἀκαθαρασία πᾶσα (LTTrWHRV) throws the emphasis on πᾶσα , = “fornication and uncleanness, every kind of it”. The metabatic δέ carries the exhortation over to a prohibition expressed in the strongest terms, which is levelled against one of the deadliest and most inveterate temptations to which Gentile Christians were exposed. The term πορνεία is to be taken in its proper sense and is not to be restricted to any one particular form the license practised at heathen festivals, concubinage, marriage within prohibited degrees, or the like. The moral life of the Graeco-Roman world had sunk so low that, while protests against the prevailing corruption were never entirely wanting, fornication had long come to be regarded as a matter of moral indifference, and was indulged in without shame or scruple not only by the mass, but by philosophers and men of distinction who in other respects led exemplary lives. ἢ πλεονεξία : or covetousness . Here, as in Eph 4:19 , πλεονεξία is named along with ἀκαθαρσία . In this passage, as in the former, most commentators take the two terms to designate two distinct forms of sin, viz. , the two vices to which the ancient heathen world was most enslaved, immorality and greed; while some understand πλεονεξία to be rather a further definition of ἀκαθαρσία and give it the sense of insatiability, inordinate affection, sensual greed. The noun is found ten times in the NT and the verb πλεονεκτεῖν five times. In some of these occurrences πλεονεξία can mean nothing else than covetousness ( e.g. , Luk 12:15 ; 2Co 9:5 ; 1Th 2:5 ). But the question is whether it has that sense in all the passages, or has taken on the acquired sense of sensual greed or overreaching in some of them. That is not very easy to decide. The association of the word πλεονέκτης with sins of the flesh ( e.g. , in 1Co 5:10-11 ) is urged in favour of the latter application ( cf. Trench, Syn. of the N. T. , p. 79). But it is argued with reason that the use of the disjunctive ἢ between πόρνοις and πλεονέκταις there and the connecting of πλεονέκταις with ἅρπαξιν by καί point to a distinction between the former two and an identity between the latter. So, too, in Col 3:5 the noun πλεονεξίαν is differentiated from the πορνείαν , etc., by τήν . On the other hand, the passages in Rom 1:29 and 2Pe 2:14 seem to suggest something more than covetousness , and it is also to be noticed that the original idea of these terms was that of having or taking an advantage over others. In 1Th 4:6 the verb πλέονεκτεῖν is used along with ὑπερβαίνειν in this sense, with reference to the sin of adultery. The present passage is probably the one, so far as Pauline use is concerned, that most favours the second sense, and it must be added that even the argument from the force of the disjunctive ἤ must not be made too much of. For in chap. Eph 5:5 we find πόρνος and ἀκάθαρτος connected by ἣ . μηδὲ ὀνομαζέσθω ενὑμῖν : let it not be even named among you . Cranm., Gen., Bish. render it “be once named”. The strong neg. μηδέ gives it this force “Not to speak of doing such a thing, let it not be even so much as mentioned among you”. The partial parallel in Herod. , i., 138, ἅσσα δὲ σφι ποιέειν οὐκ ἔξεστι , ταῦτα οὐδὲ λέγειν ἔξεστι , is noticed here by most. καθὼς πρέπει ἁγίοις : as becometh saints . The position of sainthood or separation to God, in which the Gospel places the Christian, is so far apart from the license of the world as to make it utterly incongruous even to speak of the inveterate sins of a corrupt heathenism.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter V

Specific exhortations, vs. 3-20. relative duties of husbands and wives, Eph_5:21-33.

Ephesians 5:3-20

Analysis

It becomes saints to avoid not only the sins of uncleanness and covetousness, but also all impropriety of conduct and frivolity of language, Eph_5:3-4. Because uncleanness and covetousness not only exclude from heaven, but, whatever errorists may say, bring down the wrath of God, Eph_5:5-6. Christians, therefore, should not participate in those sins, seeing they have been divinely enlightened and made the recipients of that light whose fruits are goodness, righteousness and truth. They are bound to exemplify this in their conduct, avoiding and reproving the deeds of darkness, Eph_5:7-10. Those deeds are too shameful to be named; still they may be corrected by the power of that light which it is the prerogative of believers to disseminate. Therefore the Scriptures speak of the light which flows from Christ as reaching even to the dead, Eph_5:12-14. Christians therefore should be wise, making the most of every occasion for good, in the midst of the evils by which they are surrounded, Eph_5:13-16. They should seek exhilaration not from wine, but from the Holy Spirit, and give expression to their gladness in psalms and hymns, praising and thanking God through Jesus Christ, Eph_5:17-20.

Commentary

Eph_5:3

But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints.

In the preceding section the apostle had spoken of sins against our neighbor; here from Eph_5:3 to Eph_5:20 he dwells principally on sins against ourselves. Not only fornication, but everything of the same nature, or that leads to it, is to be avoided and not only avoided, but not even named among believers. The inconsistency of all such sins with the character of Christians, as saints, men selected from the world and consecrated to God, is such as should forbid the very mention of them in a Christian society. With the sins of uncleanness the apostle here, as in the preceding chapter, Eph_5:19, connects πλεονεξία, covetousness. The word is to be taken in its ordinary sense, as there is nothing in the context to justify any departure from it. The assumption that sins of sensuality are alone mentioned in this and the following verse, leads to very forced interpretations of several of the terms employed.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Now he cometh to another kind of affections, which is in that part of the mind, which men call covetous or desirous: and he reprehended fornication, covetousness, and jesting, very sharply.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

These verses contain a caution against all manner of uncleanness, with proper remedies and arguments proposed: some further cautions are added, and other duties recommended. Filthy lusts must be suppressed, in order to the supporting of holy love. Walk in love, and shun fornication and all uncleanness. Fornication is folly committed between unmarried persons. All uncleanness includes all other sorts of filthy lusts, which were too common among the Gentiles. Or covetousness, which being thus connected, and mentioned as a thing which should not be once named, some understand it, in the chaste style of the scripture, of unnatural lust; while others take it in the more common sense, for an immoderate desire of gain or an insatiable love of riches, which is spiritual adultery; for by this the soul, which was espoused to God, goes astray from him, and embraces the bosom of a stranger, and therefore carnal worldlings are called adulterers: You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Now these sins must be dreaded and detested in the highest degree: Let it not be once named among you, never in a way of approbation nor without abhorrence, as becometh saints, holy persons, who are separated from the world, and dedicated unto God. The apostle not only cautions against the gross acts of sin, but against what some may be apt to make light of, and think to be excusable. Neither filthiness (Eph 5:4), by which may be understood all wanton and unseemly gestures and behaviour; nor foolish talking, obscene and lewd discourse, or, more generally, such vain discourse as betrays much folly and indiscretion, and is far from edifying the hearers; nor jesting. The Greek word eutrapelia is the same which Aristotle, in his Ethics, makes a virtue: pleasantness of conversation. And there is no doubt an innocent and inoffensive jesting, which we cannot suppose the apostle here forbids. Some understand him of such scurrilous and abusive reflections as tend to expose others and to make them appear ridiculous. This is bad enough: but the context seems to restrain it to such pleasantry of discourse as is filthy and obscene, which he may also design by that corrupt, or putrid and rotten, communication that he speaks of, Eph 4:29. Of these things he says, They are not convenient. Indeed there is more than inconvenience, even a great deal of mischief, in them. They are so far from being profitable that they pollute and poison the hearers. But the meaning is, Those things do not become Christians, and are very unsuitable to their profession and character. Christians are allowed to be cheerful and pleasant; but they must be merry and wise. The apostle adds, But rather giving of thanks: so far let the Christian's way of mirth be from that of obscene and profane wit, that he may delight his mind, and make himself cheerful, by a grateful remembrance of God's goodness and mercy to him, and by blessing and praising him on account of these. Note, 1. We should take all occasions to render thanksgivings and praises to God for his kindness and favours to us. 2. A reflection on the grace and goodness of God to us, with a design to excite our thankfulness to him, is proper to refresh and delight the Christian's mind, and to make him cheerful. Dr. Hammond thinks that eucharistia may signify gracious, pious, religious discourse in general, by way of opposition to what the apostle condemns. Our cheerfulness, instead of breaking out into what is vain and sinful, and a profanation of God's name, should express itself as becomes Christians, and in what may tend to his glory. If men abounded more in good and pious expressions, they would not be so apt to utter ill and unbecoming words; for shall blessing and cursing, lewdness and thanksgivings, proceed out of the same mouth?

I. To fortify us against the sins of uncleanness, etc., the apostle urges several arguments, and prescribes several remedies, in what follows,

1. He urges several arguments, As, (1.) Consider that these are sins which shut persons out of heaven: For this you know, etc., Eph 5:5. They knew it, being informed of it by the Christian religion. By a covetous man some understand a lewd lascivious libertine, who indulges himself in those vile lusts which were accounted the certain marks of a heathen and an idolater. Others understand it in the common acceptation of the word; and such a man is an idolater because there is spiritual idolatry in the love of this world. As the epicure makes a god of his belly, so the covetous man makes a god of his money, sets those affectations upon it, and places that hope, confidence, and delight, in worldly good, which should be reserved for God only. He serves mammon instead of God. Of these persons it is said that they have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God; that is, the kingdom of Christ, who is God, or the kingdom which is God's by nature, and Christ's as he is Mediator, the kingdom which Christ has purchased and which God bestows. Heaven is here described as a kingdom (as frequently elsewhere) with respect to its eminency and glory, its fulness and sufficiency, etc. In this kingdom the saints and servants of God have an inheritance; for it is the inheritance of the saints in light. But those who are impenitent, and allow themselves either in the lusts of the flesh or the love of the world, are not Christians indeed, and so belong not to the kingdom of grace, nor shall they ever come to the kingdom of glory. Let us then be excited to be on our guard against those sins which would exclude and shut us out of heaven. (2.) These sins bring the wrath of God upon those who are guilty of them: "Let no man deceive you with vain words, etc., Eph 5:6. Let none flatter you, as though such things were tolerable and to be allowed of in Christians, or as though they were not very provoking and offensive unto God, or as though you might indulge yourselves in them and yet escape with impunity. These are vain words." Observe, Those who flatter themselves and others with hopes of impunity in sin do but put a cheat upon themselves and others. Thus Satan deceived our first parents with vain words when he said to them, You shall not surely die. They are vain words indeed; for those who trust to them will find themselves wretchedly imposed upon, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. By children of disobedience may be meant the Gentiles, who disbelieved, and refused to comply with, and to submit themselves to, the gospel: or, more generally, all obstinate sinners, who will not be reclaimed, but are given over to disobedience. Disobedience is the very malignity of sin. And it is by a usual Hebraism that such sinners are called children of disobedience; and such indeed they are from their childhood, going astray as soon as they are born. The wrath of God comes upon such because of their sins; sometimes in this world, but more especially in the next. And dare we make light of that which will lay us under the wrath of God? O no. Be not you therefore partakers with them, Eph 5:7. "Do not partake with them in their sins, that you may not share in their punishment." We partake with other men in their sins, not only when we live in the same sinful manner that they do, and consent and comply with their temptations and solicitations to sin, but when we encourage them in their sins, prompt them to sin, and do not prevent and hinder them, as far as it may be in our power to do so. (3.) Consider what obligations Christians are under to live at another rate than such sinners do: For you were sometimes darkness, but now, etc., Eph 5:8. The meaning is, "Such courses are very unsuitable to your present condition; for, whereas in your Gentile and your unregenerate state you were darkness, you have now undergone a great change." The apostle calls their former condition darkness in the abstract, to express the great darkness they were in. They lived wicked and profane lives, being destitute of the light of instruction without and of the illumination and grace of the blessed Spirit within. Note, A state of sin is a state of darkness. Sinners, like men in the dark, are going they know not whither, and doing they know not what. But the grace of God had produced a mighty change in their souls: Now are you light in the Lord, savingly enlightened by the word and the Spirit of God. Now, upon your believing in Christ, and your receiving the gospel. Walk as children of light. Children of light, according to the Hebrew dialect, are those who are in a state of light, endued with knowledge and holiness. "Now, being such, let your conversation be suitable to your condition and privileges, and accordingly live up to the obligation you are under by that knowledge and those advantages you enjoy - Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord (Eph 5:10), examining and searching diligently what God has revealed to be his will, and making it appear that you approve it by conforming yourselves to it." Observe, We must not only dread and avoid that which is displeasing to God, but enquire and consider what will be acceptable to him, searching the scriptures with this view, thus keeping at the greatest distance from these sins.

2. The apostle prescribes some remedies against them. As, (1.) If we would not be entangled by the lusts of the flesh, we must bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, Eph 5:9. This is expected from the children of light, that, being illuminated, they be also sanctified by the Spirit, and thereupon bring forth his fruit, which is in all goodness, an inclination to do good and to show mercy, and righteousness, which signifies justice in our dealings. Thus they are taken more strictly; but, more generally, all religion is goodness and righteousness. And in and with these must be truth, or sincerity and uprightness of heart. (2.) We must have no fellowship with sin nor sinners, Eph 5:11. Sinful works are works of darkness: they come from the darkness of ignorance, they seek the darkness of concealment, and they lead to the darkness of hell. These works of darkness are unfruitful works; there is nothing got by them in the long run, whatever profit is pretended by sin, it will by no means balance the loss; for it issues in the utter ruin and destruction of the impenitent sinner. We must therefore have no fellowship with these unfruitful works; as we must not practice them ourselves, so we must not countenance others in the practice of them. There are many ways of our being accessory to the sins of others, by commendation, counsel, consent, or concealment. And, if we share with others in their sin, we must expect to share with them in their plagues. Nay, if we thus have fellowship with them, we shall be in the utmost danger of acting as they do ere long. But, rather than have fellowship with them, we must reprove them, implying that if we do not reprove the sins of others we have fellowship with them. We must prudently and in our places witness against the sins of others, and endeavour to convince them of their sinfulness, when we can do it seasonably and pertinently, in our words; but especially by the holiness of our lives, and a religious conversation. Reprove their sins by abounding in the contrary duties. One reason given is, For it is a shame even to speak of those things, etc., Eph 5:12. They are so filthy and abominable that it is a shame to mention them, except in a way of reproof, much more must it be a shame to have any fellowship with them. The things which are done of them in secret. The apostle seems to speak here of the Gentile idolaters, and of their horrid mysteries, which abounded with detestable wickedness, and which none were permitted to divulge upon pain of death. Observe, A good man is ashamed to speak that which many wicked people are not ashamed to act; but, as far as their wickedness appears, it should be reproved by good men. There follows another reason for such reproof: But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, Eph 5:13. The meaning of this passage may be this: "All those unfruitful works of darkness which you are called upon to reprove are laid open, and made to appear in their proper colours to the sinners themselves, by the light of doctrine or of God's word in your mouths, as faithful reprovers, or by that instructive light which is diffused by the holiness of your lives and by your exemplary walk." Observe, The light of God's word, and the exemplification of it in a Christian conversation, are proper means to convince sinners of their sin and wickedness. It follows, For whatsoever doth make manifest is light; that is, it is the light that discovers what was concealed before in darkness; and accordingly it becomes those who are children of light, who are light in the Lord, to discover to others their sins, and to endeavour to convince them of the evil and danger of them, thus shining as lights in the world. The apostle further urges this duty from the example of God or Christ: Wherefore he saith, etc. (Eph 5:14); as if he had said, "In doing this, you will copy after the great God, who has set himself to awaken sinners from their sleep, and to raise them from the death of sin, that they might receive light from Christ." He saith. The Lord is constantly saying in his word what is more particularly expressed in Isa 60:1. Or, Christ, by his ministers, who preach the everlasting gospel, is continually calling upon sinners to this effect: Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead. The same thing in the main is designed by these different expressions; and they serve to remind us of the great stupidity and the wretched security of sinners, how insensible they are of their danger, and how unapt they naturally are to spiritual motions, sensations, and actions. When God calls upon them to awake, and to arise, his meaning is that they would break off their sins by repentance, and enter on a course of holy obedience, and he encourages them to essay and do their utmost that way, by that gracious promise, And Christ shall give thee light; or Christ shall enlighten thee, or shall shine upon thee. "He shall bring thee into a state of knowledge, holiness, and comfort, assisting thee with his grace, and refreshing thy mind with joy and peace here and rewarding thee with eternal glory at length." Observe, When we are endeavouring to convince sinners, and to reform them from their sins, we are imitating God and Christ in that which is their great design throughout the gospel. Some indeed understand this as a call to sinners and to saints: to sinners to repent and turn; to saints to stir up themselves to their duty. The former must arise from their spiritual death; and the latter must awake from their spiritual deadness. (3.) Another remedy against sin is circumspection, care, or caution (Eph 5:15): See then, etc. This may be understood either with respect to what immediately precedes, "If you are to reprove others for their sins, and would be faithful to your duty in this particular, you must look well to yourselves, and to your own behaviour and conduct" (and, indeed, those only are fit to reprove others who walk with due circumspection and care themselves): or else we have here another remedy or rather preservative from the before-mentioned sins; and this I take to be the design of the apostle, being impossible to maintain purity and holiness of heart and life without great circumspection and care. Walk circumspectly, or, as the word signifies, accurately, exactly, in the right way, in order to which we must be frequently consulting our rule, and the directions we have in the sacred oracles. Not as fools, who walk at all adventures, and who have no understanding of their duty, nor of the worth of their souls, and through neglect, supineness, and want of care, fall into sin, and destroy themselves; but as wise, as persons taught of God and endued with wisdom from above. Circumspect walking is the effect of true wisdom, but the contrary is the effect of folly. It follows, redeeming the time (Eph 5:16), literally, buying the opportunity. It is a metaphor taken from merchants and traders who diligently observe and improve the seasons for merchandise and trade. It is a great part of Christian wisdom to redeem the time. Good Christians must be good husbands of their time, and take care to improve it to the best of purposes, by watching against temptations, by doing good while it is in the power of their hands, and by filling it up with proper employment - one special preservative from sin. They should make the best use they can of the present seasons of grace. Our time is a talent given us by God for some good end, and it is misspent and lost when it is not employed according to his design. If we have lost our time heretofore, we must endeavour to redeem it by doubling our diligence in doing our duty for the future. The reason given is because the days are evil, either by reason of the wickedness of those who dwell in them, or rather "as they are troublesome and dangerous times to you who live in them." Those were times of persecution wherein the apostle wrote this: the Christians were in jeopardy every hour. When the days are evil we have one superadded argument to redeem time, especially because we know not how soon they may be worse. People are very apt to complain of bad times; it were well if that would stir them up to redeem time. "Wherefore," says the apostle (Eph 5:17), "because of the badness of the times, be you not unwise, ignorant of your duty and negligent about your souls, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Study, consider, and further acquaint yourselves with the will of God, as determining your duty." Observe, Ignorance of our duty, and neglect of our souls, are evidences of the greatest folly; while an acquaintance with the will of God, and a care to comply with it, bespeak the best and truest wisdom.

II. In the three following verses the apostle warns against some other particular sins, and urges some other duties. 1. He warns against the sin of drunkenness: And be not drunk with wine, Eph 5:18. This was a sin very frequent among the heathens; and particularly on occasion of the festivals of their gods, and more especially in their Bacchanalia: then they were wont to inflame themselves with wine, and all manner of inordinate lusts were consequent upon it: and therefore the apostle adds, wherein, or in which drunkenness, is excess. The word asōtia may signify luxury or dissoluteness; and it is certain that drunkenness is no friend to chastity and purity of life, but it virtually contains all manner of extravagance, and transports men into gross sensuality and vile enormities. Note, Drunkenness is a sin that seldom goes alone, but often involves men in other instances of guilt: it is a sin very provoking to God, and a great hindrance to the spiritual life. The apostle may mean all such intemperance and disorder as are opposite to the sober and prudent demeanor he intends in his advice, to redeem the time. 2. Instead of being filled with wine, he exhorts them to be filled with the Spirit. Those who are full of drink are not likely to be full of the Spirit; and therefore this duty is opposed to the former sin. The meaning of the exhortation is that men should labour for a plentiful measure of the graces of the Spirit, that would fill their souls with great joy, strength, and courage, which things sensual men expect their wine should inspire them with. We cannot be guilty of any excess in our endeavours after these: nay, we ought not to be satisfied with a little of the Spirit, but to be aspiring after measures, so as to be filled with the Spirit. Now by this means we shall come to understand what the will of the Lord is; for the Spirit of God is given as a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding. And because those who are filled with the Spirit will be carried out in acts of devotion, and all the proper expressions of it, therefore the apostle exhorts, 3. To sing unto the Lord, Eph 5:19. Drunkards are wont to sing obscene and profane songs. The heathens, in their Bacchanalia, used to sing hymns to Bacchus, whom they called the god of wine. Thus they expressed their joy; but the joy of Christians should express itself in songs of praise to their God. In these they should speak to themselves in their assemblies and meetings together, for mutual edification. By psalms may be meant David's psalms, or such composures as were fitly sung with musical instruments. By hymns may be meant such others as were confined to matter of praise, as those of Zacharias, Simeon, etc. Spiritual songs may contain a greater variety of matter, doctrinal, prophetical, historical, etc. Observe here, (1.) The singing of psalms and hymns is a gospel ordinance: it is an ordinance of God, and appointed for his glory. (2.) Though Christianity is an enemy to profane mirth, yet it encourages joy and gladness, and the proper expressions of these in the professors of it. God's people have reason to rejoice, and to sing for joy. They are to sing and to make melody in their hearts; not only with their voices, but with inward affection, and then their doing this will be as delightful and acceptable to God as music is to us: and it must be with a design to please him, and to promote his glory, that we do this; and then it will be done to the Lord. 4. Thanksgiving is another duty that the apostle exhorts to, Eph 5:20. We are appointed to sing psalms, etc., for the expression of our thankfulness to God; but, though we are not always singing, we should never want a disposition for this duty, as we never want matter for it. We must continue it throughout the whole course of our lives; and we should give thanks for all things; not only for spiritual blessings enjoyed, and eternal ones expected (for what of the former we have in hand, and for what of the other we have in hope), but for temporal mercies too; not only for our comforts, but also for our sanctified afflictions; not only for what immediately concerns ourselves, but for the instances of God's kindness and favour to others also. It is our duty in every thing to give thanks unto God and the Father, to God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father in him, in whose name we are to offer up all our prayers, and praises, and spiritual services, that they may be acceptable to God.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

once named--Greek, "Let it not be even named" (Eph 5:4, Eph 5:12). "Uncleanness" and "covetousness" are taken up again from Eph 4:19. The two are so closely allied that the Greek for "covetousness" (pleonexia) is used sometimes in Scripture, and often in the Greek Fathers, for sins of impurity. The common principle is the longing to fill one's desire with material objects of sense, outside of God. The expression, "not be even named," applies better to impurity, than to "covetousness."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 3. But fornication] It is probable that the three terms used here by the apostle refer to different species of the same thing. The word fornication, πορνεια, may imply not only fornication but adultery also, as it frequently does; uncleanness, ακαθαρσια may refer to all abominable and unnatural lusts-sodomy, bestiality, &c., and covetousness, πλεονεξια, to excessive indulgence in that which, moderately used, is lawful. As the covetous man never has enough of wealth, so the pleasure-taker and the libertine never have enough of the gratifications of sense, the appetite increasing in proportion to its indulgence. If, however, simple covetousness, i.e. the love of gain, be here intended, it shows from the connection in which it stands, (for it is linked with fornication, adultery, and all uncleanness,) how degrading it is to the soul of man, and how abominable it is in the eye of God. In other places it is ranked with idolatry, for the man who has an inordinate love of gain makes money his god.

Let it not be once named] Let no such things ever exist among you, for ye are called to be saints.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. But fornication. This chapter, and the third of the Epistle to the Colossians, contain many parallel passages, which an intelligent reader will be at no loss to compare without my assistance. Three things are here enumerated, which the apostle desires Christians to hold in such abhorrence, that they shall not even be named, or, in other words, shall be entirely unknown among them. By uncleanness he means all base and impure lusts; so that this word differs from fornication, only as the whole class differs from a single department. The third is covetousness, which is nothing more than an immoderate desire of gain. To this precept he adds the authoritative declaration, that he demands nothing from them but that which becometh saints, — manifestly excluding from the number and fellowship of the saints all fornicators, and impure and covetous persons.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

3. but] The word imports a sort of a fortiori. The Examples of the Father and the Son oblige the believer to a uniform life of holy unselfish love; how complete then is the condemnation, for the believer, of all gross sins!

fornication] A sin lightly regarded by the heathen, and too often palliated in modern Christendom, but utterly condemned by the Lord and the Apostles. See esp. Mat_15:19; Act_15:20; 1Co_6:9; 1Co_6:13; 1Co_6:18; Gal_5:19; Col_3:5; 1Th_4:3; Heb_13:4; and below, Eph_5:5. Regarding it, as regarding all sin, total abstinence is the one precept of the Gospel; and the Divine precept will always be found, sooner or later, to coincide with the highest physical law.

all uncleanness] Act, word, or thought, unworthy the children of the All-Pure. Observe the characteristic “all”; and cp. last note, and on Eph_4:31.

covetousness] The Gr. word has occurred Eph_4:19 (A.V. “greediness”), where see note. Here as there the root idea is the grasp after another’s own, whatever it may be; money, person, wife. This passage, more perhaps than any other, suggests that the word had acquired by usage, in St Paul’s time, a familiar though not fixed connexion with sensual greed, just such as our word “covetousness” has acquired with the greed of material property. It would scarcely otherwise be used to denote an “unnamable” sin.

once named] Lit. and better, even named; obviously in the sense of approving or tolerant mention. The Apostle himself here “names” these sins for exposure and condemnation; and Christians may need, on occasion, to do the same, and very explicitly. But let them beware that it is done in the spirit of Scripture—in self-distrust, and as in God’s presence.—For the phrase, 1Co_5:1 gives a parallel, in the A.V.; but the word “named” is probably to be omitted there from the text. The resolve not to “name” the Gods of Canaan (Psa_16:4) is parallel and illustrative.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness,.... The apostle proceeds to dehort from several vices, which are unbecoming the dear children and followers of God; and which the love of Christ should constrain them to avoid: the first of these, which is simple "fornication", is the sin which is committed between single or unmarried persons; and is contrary to the law of God, is a work of the flesh, and is against a man's own body; it renders persons unfit for church communion, brings many temporal calamities upon them, and exposes them to divine wrath, and excludes from the kingdom of heaven, without repentance; and the reason why it is so often taken notice of is, because it was very frequent among the Gentiles, and not thought criminal: "all uncleanness" takes in adultery, incest, sodomy, and every unnatural lust; and "covetousness" seems not so much to design that sin which is commonly so called, namely, an immoderate desire after worldly things, as a greedy and insatiable appetite after the above lusts:

let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; that is, neither one or other of them; the sense is, that they should not be committed; so that there might be no occasion to speak of them, even though with abhorrence, as if there were no such vices in being; and much less should they be named with pleasure, and pleaded for: for thus it becomes such who are set apart by God the Father, whose sins are expiated by the blood of Christ, and whose hearts are sanctified by the Spirit of God; who profess the Gospel of Christ, and have a place and a name in God's house, better than that of sons and daughters.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

Ver. 3. But fornication and all uncleanness] As standing in full opposition to that sweet smelling savour, Eph 5:2, being no better than the corruption of a dead soul, the devil’s excrement. That people fitly punished this filthy sin, who put the offenders’ heads into the paunch of a beast where all the filth lieth, and so stifled them to death.

Let it not be once named] Much less acted as in stage plays. Ludi praebent semina nequitiae. (Ovid. Trist.) How Alipius was corrupted by them, St Austin tells us. How the youth of Athens, Plato complaineth. One of our countrymen professeth in print, that he found theatres to be the very hatchers of all wickedness, the brothels of baudery, the black blasphemy of the gospel, the devil’s chair, the plague of piety, the canker of the commonwealth, &c. He instanceth on his knowledge, citizens’ wives confessing on their death beds that they were so impoisoned at stage plays, that they brought much dishonour to God, wrong to their marriage beds, weakness to their wretched bodies, and woe to their undone souls. (Spec. Belli Sacri.) It was therefore great wisdom in the Lacedaemonians to forbid the acting of comedies or tragedies in their commonwealth, and that for this reason, lest either in jest or earnest anything should be said or done contrary to the laws in force among them. (Plutarch.) What a sad complaint was that of the apostle, 1Co 5:1, that that which was not so much as named among heathens was done by a Christian; whereas the rule of piety here is, that those sins should not be so much as named among Christians which are done by the Gentiles.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But fornication - A “common” vice among the pagan then as it is now, and one into which they were in special danger of falling; see Rom 1:29 note; 1Co 6:18 note.

And all uncleanness - Impurity of life; see the notes on Rom 1:24; compare Rom 6:19; Gal 5:19; Eph 4:19; Col 3:5.

Or covetousness - The “connection” in which this word is found is remarkable. It is associated with the lowest and most debasing vices, and this, as well as those vices, was not once to be “named” among them. What was Paul’s estimate then of covetousness? He considered it as an odious and abominable vice; a vice to be regarded in the same light as the most gross sin, and as wholly to be abhorred by all who bore the Christian name see Eph 5:5. The covetous man, according to Paul, is to be ranked with the sensual, and with idolaters Eph 5:5, and with those who are entirely excluded from the kingdom of God Is this the estimate in which the vice is held now? Is it the view which professing Christians take of it? Do we not feel that there is a “great” difference between a covetous man and a man of impure and licentious life? Why is this? Because:

(1)It is so common;

(2)Because it is found among those who make pretensions to refinement and even religion;

(3)Because it is not so easy to define what is covetousness, as it is to define impurity of life; and,

(4)Because the public conscience is seared, and the mind blinded to the low and grovelling character of the sin.

Yet, is not the view of Paul the right view? Who is a covetous man? A man who, in the pursuit of gold, neglects his soul, his intellect, and his heart. A man who, in this insatiable pursuit, is regardless of justice, truth, charity, faith, prayer, peace, comfort, usefulness, conscience; and who shall say that there is any vice more debasing or degrading than this? The time “may” come, therefore, when the covetous man will be regarded as deserving the same rank in the public estimation with the most vicious, and when to covet will be considered as much opposed to the spirit of the gospel as any of the vices here named. When that time shall come, the world’s conversion will probably be not a distant event.

Let it not be once named among you - That is, let it not exist; let there be no occasion for mentioning such a thing among you; let it be wholly unknown. This cannot mean that it is wrong to “mention” these vices for the purpose of rebuking them, or cautioning those in danger of committing them - for Paul himself in this manner mentions them here, and frequently elsewhere - but that they should not “exist” among them.

As becometh saints - As befits the character of Christians, who are regarded as holy. Literally, “as becometh holy ones” - ἁγίοις hagiois.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Covetousness.[1] The Latin word is generally taken for a coveting or immoderate desire of money and riches. St. Jerome and others observe, that the Greek word in this an divers other places in the New Testament may signify any unsatiable desire, or the lusts of sensual pleasures; and on this account, St. Jerome thinks that it is here joined with fornication and uncleanness. But St. John Chrysostom in the last chapter, (ver. 19. hom. xiii. and on this chap. ver. 3.) shews that by the Greek word is understood avarice, or an immoderate desire of riches, when he tells (hom. xviii) that this sin is condemned by those words of Christ, Luke xvi. 13. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

and 5. Covetousness, avaritia, Greek: pleonexia. See St. Jerome on these verses, who expounds it of an insatiable lust, as to the sins of uncleanness and impurity. (p. 380.) But see also St. John Chrysostom who, by Greek: pleonexia, (Chap. iv. 19.) expounds, an immoderate desire of riches: Greek: chrematon om. ig. (p. 829.) And here, hom. xvii. p. 847, Greek: o gar auto chrematon eromen, kai somaton. And hom. xviii, on the fifth verse, he expounds the word, Greek: pleonektes, os estin eidololatres, qui est idolatra, of him who is, properly speaking, an avaricious man; who adores mammon, or riches, who takes pains to leave an inheritance to others, and deprives himself of it, &c. (p. 853.) Greek: chruso douleuontes, 851.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

But fornication; folly committed between unmarried persons, especially men’s abuse of themselves with common strumpets, a sin not owned as such among the heathen.

And all uncleanness; all other unlawful lusts whereby men defile themselves.

Or covetousness; either an insatiable desire of gratifying their lusts, as Eph 4:19; or rather an immoderate desire of gain, which was usual in cities of great trade, as Ephesus was: see Eph 5:5.

Let it not be once named among you; not heard of, or not mentioned without detestation: see Psa 16:4; 1Co 5:1.

As becometh saints, who should be pure and holy, not in their bodies and minds only, but in their words too.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But let not any impure love be even named or heard of among you - Keep at the utmost distance from it, as becometh saints.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The apostle, in this and the following verses, exhorts the Ephesians to shun several sins, which were frequently practised among the Gentiles before their conversion to Christianity, as first, fornication, and all sorts and degrees of uncleanness. This was looked upon as an indifferent action, and no sin at all, by the Pagan world.

Next, he advises them to beware of covetousness, that is, all irregular and inordinate desires, and lusting after things forbidden in the general, and particularly all insatiable love of riches, which in trading cities, (such as Ephesus) doth usually very much abound, which sins he earnestly desires may not be named amongst them, that is, not committed by any of them, yea, not so much as named by them, without detestation.

And the argument offered to dissuade from these sins, is drawn ab indecoro as not becoming saints, that is, converted Christians, who profess separation from the world, and solemn dedication to God and Christ, and therefore ought to be holy in heart, chaste in mind, heavenly in desire, undefiled in body. A life of purity and chastity well becoming saints; they must be pure in heart, pure in tongue, pure in intention, pure in expression, pure in conversation, otherwise they answer not their name, nor walk according to their renewed nature: Let no uncleanness be once named amongst you, as becometh saints.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3–5. But. Sundry sins are now forbidden which were utterly opposed to the duties just commended. Fornication. This was hardly accounted a sin among the Gentiles. Uncleanness. Every kind of impurity. Or covetousness. This sin is emphasized. The Greek term means “Greediness for more.” It implies an insatiable desire for wealth and for the things which gratify appetite. It is therefore a greed which leads to many sins. Let it not be once named. Such sins must be banished not only in deed, but in word.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

But there must not be even a suggestion among you of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or of greed

"Do not do anything that would let anyone think that you are are guilty of sexual immorality or any kind of impurity or greed"

any kind of impurity

"any moral uncleanness"

Instead there should be thanksgiving

"Instead you should thank God"

translationWords

sexual immorality

believe

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

3. Πορνεία δὲ κ.τ.λ. After the height to which we have been raised in Eph 5:2 this comes as a rude shock. But St Paul is always in close touch with the facts of the situation. His clear vision of the glory of the true Christian life did not blind him to the dangers to which it was exposed by the state of public opinion in his day. These dangers were of two kinds. The first came from the prevailing tone of Greek society in regard to sexual morality, the second from the popular assumption that self-aggrandisement is the only effective motive in human action. St Paul has already traced the moral darkness of the Gentile world to its root in sensual indulgence, Eph 5:19. He here warns against the danger of dallying with impurity in ordinary conversation, and he couples with it a similar warning in regard to ‘covetousness.’ The collocation has seemed strange to many commentator’s and an attempt has been made to find another meaning for πλεονέκτης and πλεονεξία. Lightfoot (on Col 3:5) and Robinson are no doubt right in contending that the attempt has failed. On the relation between the two contrasted forms of evil see on Eph 4:19. What should be noted here is that St Paul would have us guard as carefully against listening to tales that would excite the passion of greed in us, as against tales that inflame the fires of lust. He would exclude from ordinary conversation the assumption or imputation of selfish just as much as of impure motives.

καθὼς πρέπει ἁγίοις. Cf. 2Co 7:1. The thought is that as God’s people they were bound to keep free from contact with that which might defile, and so fulfil the Levitical regulations for ceremonial purity for worshippers under the Old Covenant. Such regulations applied only, as our Lord’s seeming disregard of them shows, to careless, indifferent contact, not to the touch which brought healing and life. So here St Paul is not breaking his own rule in laying it down. πλεονεξία occurs in the Gospels only in Mar 7:22; Luk 12:15.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3-21.] Dehortation (for the most part) from works unbecoming the holiness of the life of children and imitators of God.

3.] But (not transitional merely: there is a contrast brought out by the very mention of πορνεία after what has just been said) fornication and all impurity or (see ch. 4:19 note) covetousness (ib.), let it not be even named (‘ne nomen quidem audiatur.’ Calv. So Dio Chrys. p. 360 b (Mey.), στάσιν δὲ οὐδὲ ὀνομάζειν ἄξιον παρʼ ὑμῖν: Herod. i. 138, ἅσσα δέ σφι ποιέειν οὐκ ἔξεστι, ταῦτα οὐδὲ λέγειν ἔξεστι. Cf. Psa 15:4) among you, as becometh saints (meaning, that if it were talked of, such conversation would be unbecoming the holy ones of God): and obscenity (not in word only (αἰσχρολογία, ref. Col.): cf. Plato, Gorg. p. 525 a, ὑπὸ ἐξουσίας κ. τρυφῆς κ. ὕβρεως κ. ἀκρατίας τῶν πράξεων ἀσυμμετρίας τε καὶ αἰσχρότητος γέμουσαν τὴν ψυχὴν εἶδεν) and foolish talking (‘stultiloquium,’ Vulg. Wetst. quotes from Antigonus de Mirabilibus, 126, τὰ μεγάλα κ. ἐπανεστηκότα μωρολογίας κ. ἀδολεσχίας. Trench well maintains, Syn. § 34, that in Christian ethics, it is more than mere ‘random talk:’ it is that talk of fools, which is folly and sin together: including not merely the πᾶν ῥῆμα ἀργόν of our Lord (Mat 12:36), but in good part also the πᾶς λόγος σαπρός of his Apostle (Eph 4:29)) or (disjunctive, marking off εὐτραπελία as πλεονεξία before) jesting (much interest attaches to this word, which will be found well discussed in Trench, as above. It had at first a good signification: Aristot. Eth. Nic. iv. 8, deals with the εὐτράπελος—οἱἐμμελῶς παίζοντες εὐτράπελοι προσαγορεύονται,—and describes him as the mean between the βωμολόχος and ἄγροικος. So too Plato, Rep. viii. p. 563 a,—οἱ δὲ γέροντες ξυγκαθιέντες τοῖς νέοις εὐτραπελίας τε κ. χαριεντισμοῦ ἐμπίπλανται, … ἵνα δὴ μὴ δοκῶσιν ἀηδεῖς εἶναι μηδὲ δεσποτικοί. But Trench remarks that there were indications of a bad sense of the word: e.g. Pind. Pyth. i. 178,—μὴ δολωθῇς, ὦ φίλε, κέρδεσιν εὐτραπέλοις, where he quotes from Dissen—‘primum est de facilitate in motu, tum ad mores transfertur, et indicat hominem temporibus inservientem, diciturque tum de sermone urbano, lepido, faceto, imprimis cum levitatis et assentationis, simulationis notione.’ I may add, as even more apposite here, Pyth. iv. 185, οὔτε ἔργον οὔτʼ ἔπος εὐτράπελον κείνοισιν εἰπών. Aristotle himself, Rhet. ii. 12 end, defines it as πεπαιδευμένη ὕβρις. “The profligate old man in the ‘miles gloriosus’ of Plautus, iii. 1. 42-52, who at the same time prides himself, and with reason, on his wit, his elegance, and his refinement (cavillatus, lepidus, facetus), is exactly the εὐτράπελος: and remarkably enough, when we remember that εὐτραπελία being only expressly forbidden once in Scripture, is forbidden to Ephesians, we find him bringing out, that all this was to be expected from him, seeing that he was an Ephesian: ‘Post Ephesi sum natus: non enim in Apulis, non Animulæ.’ ” Trench: whose further remarks should by all means be read), which are not becoming (the reading τὰ οὐκ ἀνήκοντα has perhaps come into the text from the τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα of Rom 1:28, the οὐκ of the text being preserved through inadvertence. If, however, the participial clause be retained in the text, it may be grammatically justified by remembering that, where the various objects are specified which as matter of fact are οὐκ ἀνήκοντα, the objective negative particle οὐκ may be used: whereas in Rom 1:28, where no such objects are specified, we have ποιεῖν τὰ μὴ καθήκοντα, ‘si quæ essent indecora,’ as Winer, § 55. 5: see Hartung, vol. ii. p. 131): but rather thanksgiving (not, as Jer., Calv., al., ‘sermo qui gratiam apud audientes habet,’ which the word cannot mean. It is a question, what verb is to be supplied: Beng. supposes ἀνήκει, which is perhaps most likely, as suiting the simplicity of the construction of these hortatory verses better than going back to ὀνομαζέσθω (De W., Mey., al.),—and as finding a parallel in ch. 4:29, where the ellipsis is to be supplied from the sentence itself. There is a play perhaps on the similar sound of εὐτραπελία and εὐχαριστία, which may account for the latter not finding so complete a justification in the sense as we might expect: the connexion being apparently, ‘your true cheerfulness and play of fancy will be found, not in buffoonery, but in the joy of a heart overflowing with a sense of God’s mercies’).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3-11. Special warnings against sins of impurity

3. πορνεία δὲ καὶ ἀκαθαρσία πᾶσα ἢ πλεονεξία μηδὲ ὀνομαζέσθω ἐν ὑμῖν.

πορνεία is mentioned as being a sin of little account amongst the Gentiles. On πλεονεξία see 4:19. This passage, says Moule, more perhaps than any other, suggests that the word(πλεονεξία)had acquired by usage, in St. Paul’s time, a familiar though not fixed connexion with sensual greed, just such as our word “covetousness” has acquired with the greed of material property. It is urged here that ἤ indicates that the two words between which it stands belong to different classes. But in the following verse we have ἤ between μωρολογία and εὐτραπελία, which do not belong to different classes.

μηδὲ ὀνομαζέσθω. Herodotus says of the Persians: ἅσσα δέ σφι ποιέειν οὐκ ἔξεστι, ταῦτα οὐδὲ λέγειν ἔξεστι (i. 138). But St. Paul’s precept refers to particular classes of sin only. Compare ver. 12. of οἱ γὰρ λόγοι τῶν πραγμάτων εἰσὶν ὁδοί Chrys. Bengel suggests for ὀνομ. “mentioned as committed,” “ut facta”; cf. ἀκούεται ἐν ὑμῖν πορνεία, 1Co 5:1. But, besides that ὀνομ can hardly mean this,μηδέ, “not even,” is decisive against it.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or covetousness. Or sets this sin emphatically by itself.

Let it. It refers to each of the sins.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.